Guayacanal

En la m�s personal de sus obras, William Ospina cuenta la historia de sus bisabuelos, sus abuelos y del pueblo en el que naci� y creci�, una historia que termina por ser, a la vez, un espejo o mejor, un trasunto de la hermosa y compleja y dolorosa historia de Colombia.

En Guayacanal -el nombre de la finca de su familia, en torno a la cual transcurr�a la vida de esta-, William Ospina cuenta la historia de sus bisabuelos, de sus abuelos y de Padua y sus contornos, el lugar en el que naci� y donde pas� una infancia feliz y embrujadora que, comprueba �l, nunca lo ha abandonado.

Con una prosa envolvente y cercana, sencilla y po�tica al mismo tiempo, conduce al lector del presente al pasado y del pasado al presente una y otra vez, y de los parajes de su ni�ez que en la actualidad recorre con nostalgia y emoci�n se va a un pasado m�ltiple: a la Conquista, a la Colonia y, sobre todo, a la primera mitad del siglo XX, cuando sus antepasados se asentaron en la zona y fueron testigos y protagonistas del nacimiento de un mundo maravilloso y complejo, que supo mantenerse al margen de una violencia que, por desgracia, al final lleg�.

Llena de alegr�a, de m�sica, de naturaleza, de personajes de una humanidad inveros�mil, de fiestas, relatos, poes�a, magia y francachelas, por un lado, as� como de mezquindades gratuitas, de hombres aviesos, de terribles cr�menes, esta extraordinaria novela logra, en cierto modo, desentra�ar un pa�s entero, su esp�ritu; y, adem�s, revive una Colombia extinta, una �poca, una regi�n y unos personajes desaparecidos f�sicamente, pero que podr�n estar vivos siempre gracias a estas p�ginas.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

In his most personal work, William Ospina tells the story of his great-grandparents, his grandparents, and the town in which he was born and raised, a story that ends up being a mirror, or perhaps a copy, of the beautiful, complex, and painful history of Colombia.

In Guayacanal --the name of his family's farm, around which the lives of the family revolve--William Ospina tells the story of his great-grandparents, his grandparents, and of Padua and the surrounding areas, the place where he was born and where he spent a happy, charming childhood that he has never left behind.

With engrossing, intimate prose that is both simple and poetic, he brings the reader from past to present, and from present to past over and over; from his childhood settings that he currently turns to with nostalgia and emotion, he goes to a multi-faceted past: to the Conquest, to the Colony, and above all, to the first half of the 20th century, when his ancestors settled in the region and were witnesses and protagonists to the birth of a marvelous, complex world, which somehow stayed on the sidelines of a violence that, unfortunately, eventually arrived.

Full of joy, music, nature, utterly human characters, parties, tales, poetry, magic, and carousal on one hand, as well as unwarranted maliciousness, wicked men, and terrible crimes, this extraordinary novel manages to somehow get to the bottom of an entire country and its spirit. It also revives an extinct Colombia, an era, a region, and characters that have physically disappeared but which can always be alive in these pages.