Los divinos
Author: Laura Restrepo A real crime that moved an entire society. A condemnation of femicide by one of the most important Spanish-language authors. A girl’s body is found floating in the water, in what seems to be a ritual. At the heart of this episode is the superficial world of some rich, successful young men who have an evil lifelong bond and are a world apart from the victim: poor, and a survivor of the violence of her homeland. The Divine is the fictional recreation of a real crime, but above all is the most important novel by one of the best Latin American writers. By the winner of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, Prix France Culture, Archbishop Juan de San Clemente Prize, Grinzane Cavour Prize, and the Alfaguara Novel Prize for Delirium. Restrepo's father loved to travel, but hated flying, and so he would pile his wife, Helen, and two daughters, Laura and Carmen, into a Volkswagen and leave for extended trips, never stopping anywhere long enough for his children to complete a year of schooling. In a lengthy interview with Jaime Manrique of BOMB magazine, Restrepo related a story about how she attended a public school in Corte Madera, California for only one day, because the following day, the family moved on to another location. She also told of how at the age of ten, when the family was in Denmark, she spent six months attending a ceramics night school. Later, when the family visited Madrid, the school rejected her because she failed required admission exams in arithmetic, grammar, and embroidery, which under the rule of fascism was considered a basic requirement for admission to the school. Instead of teaching his daughter competency in the required subjects, Restrepo's father located a flamenco guitar teacher who made house calls, although she had no affinity for the guitar. Instead of schools, there were visits to museums, to ancient ruins, and to the theater. Rather than learn about grammar and mathematics, Restrepo and her sister listened to her father's favorite music, read good books by important authors, and learned about geology and nature by exploring the land, rather than through photos in a book.
A story based on one of the most shocking crimes committed in Colombia in recent history.
Laura Restrepo was born in Bogotá, Columbia, in 1950, the eldest of two daughters. Restrepo had an unconventional childhood; her father believed strongly in education, but he also believed that much of a child's education should be found through experience, rather than in conventional schooling. Restrepo's father left school when he was 13 years old, and her paternal grandfather had been completely self-educated, having never attended schools. Her grandfather, who was a published writer, proved the value of self-education by teaching himself six different languages, including Latin and Greek. Instead of attending school when she was a child, Restrepo learned about the world in much the same way as her grandfather had learned—through opening her mind to the world in which she lived. Restrepo entered college when she was 15 years old, and she finally became a more traditional student.