Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Author: Patricia Engel

I often wonder if we are living the wrong life in the wrong country.

Talia is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket to the United States are waiting for her. If she misses her flight, she might also miss her chance to finally be reunited with her family in the north.

How this family came to occupy two different countries, two different worlds, comes into focus like twists of a kaleidoscope. We see Talia’s parents, Mauro and Elena, fall in love in a market stall as teenagers against a backdrop of civil war and social unrest. We see them leave Bogotá with their firstborn, Karina, in pursuit of safety and opportunity in the United States on a temporary visa, and we see the births of two more children, Nando and Talia, on American soil. We witness the decisions and indecisions that lead to Mauro’s deportation and the family’s splintering—the costs they’ve all been living with ever since.

Award-winning, internationally acclaimed author Patricia Engel, herself a dual citizen and the daughter of Colombian immigrants, gives voice to all five family members as they navigate the particulars of their respective circumstances. And all the while, the metronome ticks: Will Talia make it to Bogotá in time? And if she does, can she bring herself to trade the solid facts of her father and life in Colombia for the distant vision of her mother and siblings in America?

Rich with Bogotá urban life, steeped in Andean myth, and tense with the daily reality of the undocumented in America, Infinite Country is the story of two countries and one mixed-status family—for whom every triumph is stitched with regret, and every dream pursued bears the weight of a dream deferred.

[highlight color=”green”]Goodreads users review :[/highlight]

•Rating• ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars Must Read •Review• This is a book that needs to be read. Not because it’s beautifully written or suspenseful or a page turner, but because it is important. We are so often bombarded with propaganda about the border and immigrants and documentation. It can be easy to dehumanize all of it. Reading Infinite Country reminds us that there are families and parents and grandparents and children involved in each and every case of citizenship. They all have stories and reasons for living in the United States. SheLovesThePages                                                                                  rated it: 5.0 from 5.0

Infinite Country is a multi generational family saga about a Colombian family with mixed citizenship status. The story is told through different family members perspectives, time periods, and Andean mythology. The heartache and hope interwoven into this fractured family due to the US’s atrocious immigration policies was so visceral. I found the writing about displacement, not only physical displacement but of a spiritual variety as well, so acute and searing. Alcoholism! Landscapes! Indigenous wisdom! Love! CJ Alberts                                                                                               rated it: 5.0 from 5.0