Copyright © 2001 by Fernando Vallejo

Copyright © 2024 by Yvette Siegert

All rights reserved.

Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, or be used to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies or develop machine-learning language models, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Originally published as El desbarrancadero in 2003 by Alfaguara. Published by arrangement with Casanovas & Lynch Agencia Literaria S.L.

First published as New Directions Paperbook 1600 in 2024

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Vallejo, Fernando, author. | Siegert, Yvette, translator, writer of afterword.

Title: The abyss / by Fernando Vallejo ; translated, with an afterword, by Yvette Siegert.

Other titles: Desbarrancadero. English

Description: First edition. | New York : New Directions Books, 2024.

Identifiers: LCCN 2024004625 | ISBN 9780811238519 (paperback) |

ISBN 9780811238526 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Vallejo, Fernando—Fiction. | Brothers—Fiction. | Gay men—Fiction. | Death—Fiction. | Loss (Psychology)—Fiction. | Colombia—Social conditions—Fiction. | LCGFT: Autobiographical fiction. | Gay fiction. | Ghost stories. | Novels.

Classification: LCC PQ8180.32.A4277 D4713 2024 | DDC 863/.64—dc23/eng/20240315

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024004625

New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin

by New Directions Publishing Corporation

80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011