The Book of Marlon is the portrait of a unique friendship and a shared dream amidst the cutting realities of life in a country devastated by violence. Set in Medellín, Colombia, this is the story of Marlon, an idealistic but disillusioned young Nebraskan, and Camilo, a local youth from a tough barrio called Manrique. Despite the different worlds from which they come, the two young men are powerfully drawn to each other and forge a unique bond as they try to carve out a place of their own in the world. Together, they start a business and share a home, but the power of history exerts its own force, and their wholesome aspirations must contend with the legacy of fathers and forebears, especially when these phantoms come back from the dead. Meanwhile, they wrestle with growing tensions in the complicated relationship they share. Marlon and Camilo’s story is also a meditation on timeless themes of faith, guilt, and the search for meaning and identity in an era of global upheaval, convergence and shifting paradigms.
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A young man from Nebraska and a Colombian youth come together in a city ravaged by violence and filled with the displaced. One with a father in prison, one whose father has mysteriously abandoned him, together they try to move on, sharing the travails of daily life as they struggle to build a tenuous burger business in a working-class barrio called La América.
Camilo, who has given up his dreams of dance, yearns to be closer to Marlon, the American. Camilo is steadfast in his faith. Marlon desperately needs something to believe in too, but torn and stuck, burdened by a secret history, all he knows to do is do his duty: minding the griddle, flipping the burgers cheerfully. One night, in the shadow of an awning, a legend from the dead offers both answers and the way of an escape. While across town, another charismatic figure emerges. Echoing a native god of this land, he offers to his own following of the disillusioned and displaced the lure of unspeakable riches, an El Dorado in a powerful, alternative vision of the world. But Marlon would have to give up everything that matters to him in order to “climb the pyramid.”
Dangerous temptations can or cannot be resisted. But when Camilo’s father returns from prison intent on righting his own wrongs, it sets off a devastating chain reaction, from which nobody can escape.
Set in Medellín against the backdrop of the Colombian Peace Process and the False Positives scandal, The Book of Marlon uncovers the legacies that burden and bind us across generations, countries and continents. It explores the mysteries of love and violence, values and faith, fatherhood and friendship. Finally, at a time of global upheaval, it affirms a message of hope in our common humanity.
THE BOOK OF MARLON will be especially enjoyed by readers of:
- Call Me By Your Name (André Aciman)
- What Belongs to You (Garth Greenwell)
- A Home at the End of the World (Michael Cunningham)
- The Shape of the Ruins (Juan Gabriel Vásquez)
- A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara)
- A Single Man (Chistopher Isherwood)
- A Ladder to the Sky (John Boyne)
- Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin)
- The Sympathizer (Viet Thanh Nguyen)
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong)
- Brideshead Revisited (Eveyln Waugh)
- The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
- The Glass Bead Game (Herman Hesse)
- El Olvido que Seremos (Héctor Abad Faciolince)
- Rosario Tijeras (Jorge Franco)
- La Virgen de los sicarios (Fernando Vallejo)
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