This is one of the trickiest reviews I’ve written in ages. I liked and enjoyed this short book (just over 200 pages), but I didn’t love it. I’ll try to articulate why below.

It tells the story of Colombian couple Mauro and Elena, who flee Columbia in the early 2000s, propelled to seek a better life for themselves and their daughter Karina. They go on to have two more children Nando and Talia in the US, both of whom are legal citizens.

It is a moving story of migration, displacement, separation, belonging, and the fear and isolation involved in living as an undocumented American. There is a constant tug for the family towards home in Columbia and the family end up being forcibly split apart (no spoiler as the book opens with Talia in Columbia).

I loved the story itself, the well-developed characters of Mauro, Elena and Talia and the use of Andean mythology to give colour to the Colombian Andean heritage of the family.

The fear felt by Elena as an undocumented migrant was palpable and the invisibility required of the children (in particular Karina) was striking and sad. The opening line of the book (“It was her idea to tie up the nun”) is superb and launches you straight into the story.

My main issue with the book was in the narration. Most of the book is narrated in the third person with little or no dialogue, when unexpectedly in the final third, it switches to the first person (two hitherto barely developed characters). It felt clumsy and more like an afterthought.

The voices were entirely stylistically different to what came before - I actually preferred them - which made me think maybe the whole book might have been better written from that personal perspective! Arguably, the jarring nature of it was fully intended to mirror the splintering of the family.

A minor quibble but Elena and Talia’s religious faith comes up a a few times in the book (fair enough), but there are a few incongruous anti-abortion references in the book that felt jarring and unnecessary (every American encountered by Elena appeared from her perspective to be rabidly pro-abortion).

I did enjoy the book on the whole and was moved by the ending. 3.5/5 ⭐️

This was a @reecesbookclub pick for March 2021. It will be published here on 27 May. I was grateful to read an advance digital copy of the book courtesy of the publishers @SimonschusterUK via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.*

Twisting Andean folk tales with a current-day Colombia makes Engel's take on a Latin America to USA immigration story, refreshingly different.

We follow Talia in the present as she is on the run from a juvenile prison seemingly masked as a nun run reform centre for girls with criminal records, we watch her race cross country against the clock to secure a plane ticket to America, to be reunited with her mother, the mother that sent her back to Colombia only months after she was born an American citizen.

Flitting between hazy memories of her parents' meet-cute, their original journey to the USA and subsequent undocumented status of the divided family/, in places it can feel hard to grasp, but suspense lingers which compels you to read on, Engel takes us through both minutiae and milestones of the family's lives, trying to stay alive, and ahead, in an unforgiving set of circumstances. She narrowly avoids a cautionary tale arc which is much appreciated. Towards the end of the novel, another character embarks on an undocumented journey back into the states and Engel's refusal to linger on the details of the migration shows the reader that there isn't a need to exploit such traumas to perform to a reader, (looking at you, American Dirt)

Partway through the narrative lens shifts, and we are shown letters from a sibling in the US, back to Colombia, and although abrupt the change was welcomed just as I lost focus in the narrative lines.

For readers of Domincana, America is not the Heart, and those who maybe did read American Dirt and would like to repent for it too.

I loved this book!! It is worth all the hype and it's an easy 5⭐️ from me!

It's short but not short of emotions.
It's sad and yet full of hope.
It's a stunning #OwnVoices immigrant story and an ode to Colombia with just the perfect amount of Andean mythology and poetry.
The narrative going back and forth is powerful and makes this book unputdowbable. (The first line has to be the best opening line ever: "it was her idea to tie up the nun")
It also made me cry, only the second book to have had that power over me this year.

✨Read✨This✨Book✨

So many quotes I loved from this book:

🌵"People say drugs and alcohol are the greatest and most persuasive narcotics- the elements most likely to ruin a life. They're wrong. It's love."😭

🌵"What was it about this country (America) that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy?"

🌵"Her father once told her that river stones are good luck for journeys because waterways are peopled with spirits traveling between worlds, grazing those stones, leaving them as talismans for the living."

🌵"In matters of migration, even accidental, no option is more moral than another. There is only the path you make. Any other would be just as wrong or right."

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster For this ARC in return for my honest review.

Get your preorder, this book is out May 27th!

“That night I thought about how love comes paired with failures, apologies for deficiencies. The only remedy is compassion.”

As much as I love the idea and message of this novel, the execution was not entirely what I hoped for. Yes, it is definitely impactful and the storytelling is beautiful, yet I felt something was “missing” for me. There are lots of reflections on the past and not so many dialogues. The sudden switch in narrative style seemed promising but ultimately added nothing. Overall, I’m glad I read this.

Infinite country follows a Colombian family with changing timelines. Elena and Mauro are teenagers when they meet, and they fall in love among the brutality of life in Bogotá. Once their daughter is born, they move to America and send wages back to Elena’s mother, deciding to overstay their tourist visas. They struggle with the riskiness of living in America, until Mauro gets deported and Elena is left with three children. Elena makes a choice that will make life easier for her living in America but will continue to divide the family further.

This is a very short novel, but it still tackles such important and difficult topics and discussions in a nuanced way. Engel establishes a strong sense of place and atmosphere, in both America and Colombia. Each child has a different circumstance; being Colombian born but living in America, American born and living in America, and American born and living in Colombia. Engel shows the violent and disappointing side of being am immigrant in America and gives an honest look at those that are so often forgotten and abused.

I found the changing timelines quite messy and confusing and I think they could have been done in a much better way. The switching to Karina and Nando’s point of views which were in first person, nearer the end of the book I found to be strange and they slightly took me out of the story at first, but I do get why they were done after the reveal at the end. I also found the ending with Mauro to be kind of rushed and wished it would have focused on this in more detail to be more impactful.

Overall, this was an important and moving read and I recommend it for people who want to read a story about migration which is told in an honest and authentic way. I think it would have benefitted being a bit longer and the timeline changes to be a bit clearer.

3.5

Wow. This book is incredible. A very difficult read, there was a lot of sexual assault meaning I did have to stop and Start at various points. I'm unsure whether such graphic assault was always necessary. But an important read about immigration and the trauma those go through. The political narrative and exploration of the emotions and motivations from all sides was enthralling and I felt I learnt a lot through this short book. The author managed to give a voice to many who suffer, and shed light to a taboo but essential topic.

As mentioned, some details were very graphic and it would have been great if the book was longer. But overall - excellent!

“And maybe there is no nation or citizenry; they’re just territories mapped in place of family, in place of love, the infinite country.”

I’ll start off by saying that I didn’t read the synopsis before going in & from the first few pages it became clear that Engel knows how to write, I’m truly in awe of this of brief but impactful family saga, following the lives of a young Colombian couple seeking a new life in America.

Our story follows the lives of Mauro & Elena who fall in love as teenagers in Columbia, they take a chance & decide to go to the US on visitor visas with their infant child, remaining in the country illegally once the visas expire. Engel is masterful in how she portrays the span of time, year pass including plenty new states, meagre living conditions, under the counter jobs - with a further 2 children born. An unfortunate event transpires causing Mauro’s deportation, Elena struggles to cope with an infant & now needing to earn money - making the tough decision to send her youngest daughter to Columbia to be raised by her grandmother. So the story of longing commences, Mauro dreams only of Elena & his family, whilst Elena longs to find her way back to Columbia - to her home, her mother, her husband & the daughter she lost.

I really loved the non-linear & sharp narrative style Engel used to tell this story. We learn about each family member in snapshots, sometimes letters from the past & present which truly helped me connect to them & root for them to find their way back to each other.

This novel is truly breathtaking, it explores many themes including migration, racism, rape, alcoholism, violence & the struggle so many undocumented migrants face daily. I adored the way Engel wove Columbian folklore into the narrative, adding more complexity. I fell in love with this family, their collective voices were powerful & insightful, my heart broke for them. A truly compelling & thought provoking read which I definitely recommend.

Massive thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the gifted e-ARC. This one is released 27 May here in the UK

Wow. A very raw and beautiful exploration into the lives of an undocumented family trying their best to make it in America when suddenly the husband is deported leaving his wife no choice but to send her youngest child back to Columbia. I found this a really emotive and powerful exploration of family and the American "dream".

Synopsis: Infinite Country is the story of a Colombian family separated by deportation with half in the US and half in Colombia, and the lengths they’ll go to to be reunited.
•••
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Infinite Country is quite a short book and I expected to maybe be able to read it in one sitting, but the writing is quite literary and makes for a slower read. I’m glad it slowed me down though, because the writing is so beautiful and thought-provoking, that I needed the time to sit with it and to process it. I just looked back at my kindle highlights and I saved whole chunks of paragraphs, and lots of them, that I just knew I’d want to come back to and read again. The novel has a very interesting grounding in Colombian myths and legends, which are often referred to and used to develop the theme of migration and belonging.

The novel explores the experience of being immigrants in the US and from the points of view of different generations. As the book starts, the youngest daughter Talia, who grew up in Colombia with her father, is escaping a correction centre for teenage girls, to try to make her flight that will take her to her mother and siblings in the US. The book then follows her journey, whilst weaving in the story of how her parents, Mauro and Elena, moved to the US, how Mauro was deported back to Colombia, and how Talia ended up in her situation. The parents and the oldest daughter are undocumented immigrants, but the two younger children were born in the US and so have a right to remain there. The family live in fear of being separated even more, and in frustration that a lack of paper trail makes them lesser, unwelcome, non-existent. The story also begins to be narrated by the elder siblings, Karina and Nando. This was when the book picked up for me, I enjoyed this latter half of the book the most. Their voices felt so intimate and honest.

The main theme of this book is migration, and Engel explores it so poignantly, honestly and authentically. I really really recommend that you read it.
•••
‘humankind’s first migration was from the subterranean world beneath the sacred lake, driven out by the great water snake, to the land of the jaguars and the kingdom of the condors above.’
‘From the lake me came and to the lake we will return, Mauro repeated Tiberio’s words, though Talia’s eyes were on the birds circling above. We’re all migrants here on earth.’
•••
Publishes in the UK: 27 May 2021
#infinitecountry
Advance digital copy from #netgalley

I found this story really hard to get into and got bit confused at times when it jumped from one narrative to another. The narrator are the two daughters, mum and fad. The family are asylum seekers and have moved to America but they have no papers and the family gets spilt up. The book is only 208 pages long. I think the right person would really enjoy this book.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book

Patricia Engel's beautiful book, full of uncanniness and anger, longing and love, explores the sometimes hazy, sometimes intimately concrete concept of home. The members of a family separated by convoluted and infuriating circumstances tell their separate and entwining stories, all bursting with big, modern questions. How does an individual's story fit in with and veer from a family's story, a country's story, a great, ancestral myth? What does it mean to belong, without fitting into a larger group's boxes and borders? When life is so short and love is so strong, how can the US continue to force families into these impossible corners? It's a short, quick read with lasting effects. So, please, do read it but be prepared to be angry ever after.

This ARC was kindly supplied to me by Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

"What does home mean?" To search for a place to belong, to be denied a home because of the lack of a piece of paper, to be denied happiness, to live in fear and to long for those you love?  Or to find home and belonging in the arms of those you love no matter where you find them?

This book is nothing short of heartbreaking.  How one decision can send the lives of a whole family on such a difficult and troublesome path.  Mauro and Elena fall in love as teenagers living in Columbia, they decide to travel to America in search of "the dream" with their infant child.  When their travel visas expire they decide to remain illegally.  Years pass in undocumented employment and accommodation and 2 further children are born.  When Mauro is arrested and deported back to Columbia their youngest daughter Talia is sent to be raised by her grandmother and Mauro.  While Mauro longs to find himself home in the arms of the Elena, she longs to find her way back home to Columbia and the husband and daughter she has lost.

This book is incredible, it explores immigration, seeking the American Dream and the mistreatment of decent people when they find themselves stuck in a country that does not want them but will not help them.  I felt nothing but sympathy, and at times despair, for Elena and her family. 

There are many poignant quotes I could reference from this very current and astute novel however the following really sticks with me.  "I remember wondering what is must feel like to belong to American whiteness and to know you can do whatever you want because nobody you love is deportable."

Infinite country is a brief but impactful family saga, following the lives of Mauro and Elena, a Colombian couple seeking a new life in the US.

The novel opens with their youngest daughter Talia as she plots an escape from a juvenile detention centre after committing an act of violence. From here, the narrative jumps around a lot and we learn about Talia’s parents, how they came to meet, start a family and aim to start a new life in America. We also follow Talia on her journey to be reunited with her family.

I really loved the narrative style Engel uses to tell this story. The non-linear form and succinct almost vignette-style prose helped me to envision a real, authentic family, learning about each member in snapshots from past and present. I also loved the change in narrative voice later in the novel and thought this added another layer to the storytelling that I wish had been there sooner.

The characters in this book feel so dynamic and their traits are developed through such a nuanced exploration of their relationships with other people, especially the other members of their family. Engel is masterfully showing not telling here and in such few pages this was really impressive. I was instantly drawn to Talia as our protagonist, which arguably she is, but each member of this family feels just as important and central to the story. I think because the novel was so short and we don’t spend a lot of time reflecting or dwelling on the characters actions and emotions, I didn’t have a full emotional connection to some of the events in the book. However, I was definitely invested in the storytelling and do feel as though these are real people.

The book looks at themes of immigration, familial separation and home. We see these ideas from so many different perspectives which I found so interesting and seeing the effect the situation had on this family’s lives was fascinating. I think this novel balanced the themes and the plot so perfectly. It was a compelling and thought provoking reading experience and I loved learning about the socio-political conflicts of the time and place explored through this very personal story. Similar in tone and feeling to Dominicana by Angie Cruz, I think if you enjoyed one you will enjoy the other.

A very short listen on audio, Infinite Country was able to hold my attention but not quite as well as other audiobooks. Maybe I'm just not in the audiobook mindset at the moment, I just feel like I can't quite get into them. Any amazing audiobook recommendations to get me out of this slump??

Nevertheless, this book starts off exciting and I felt hooked at the beginning. One of my Bookstagram friends loved this book and maybe I would have too if I read the physical copy. The writing just didn't really speak to me and I found it lacking in the middle. The ending was sweet but I just didn't feel any connection to the characters. Not my favorite.

Patricia Engel’s Infinite Country tells the story of a divided family, torn between Colombia and the United States. Elena and Mauro meet as teenagers in Bogotá, and once their daughter Karina is born, they start to consider the prospect of moving to the United States, in need of better prospects for their new family. Once in the U.S., they welcome two more children and make the difficult decision to overstay their visas, getting by on cash-in-hand jobs and uncomfortable living arrangements. The family is eventually split, with Elena remaining in the U.S. with her two eldest children, and Mauro and their youngest living in Colombia.

Each child of Elena and Mauro is in a different situation: Karina is Colombian born, living in the United States, Nando is American born, living in the United States, and Talia is American born, living in Colombia. Engel highlights just how severely fractured this family is; not even the children are united in their circumstances.

Engel’s novel feels like an honest portrait of those with undocumented status. Infinite Country is full of such realities: the racists emboldened by the 2016 presidential election, the bogus immigration lawyers promising green cards but skipping town with their money, the precarious nature of even the legal avenues. It is clear that every day is a gamble for Elena and Mauro’s family.

Infinite Country packs a punch in around 200 pages. Engel establishes a strong sense of place, particularly in the chapters set in Bogotá, introduces complex and authentic characters, and explores themes of belonging, national identity, and the American Dream.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for the advance copy.

This is the story of a family, or actually the history of a family and a whole country, a whole phenomenon called migration.

Infinite Country is a dramatic representation of the fate of thousands and thousands of families all around the world, every day. Like in the incipit of Anna Kerenina “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family in unhappy in its own way”, we learn the struggles of Talia, and Mauro and Elena, her parents.

Through the narration and a number of flashbacks and memories we relive Mauro’s and Elena’s lives, from childhood to adulthood through their years as illegal immigrants in the US and disrupted family after Mauro’s deportation.
We then meet Talia, the youngest of their children, American by birth but raised in Colombia so Colombian at heart. We follow her in her adventures to escape the institute where she’s kept, to reach the airport in Bogotá and board the flight that will take her to the rest of her family in America.

Engel is capable of depicting the Colombian landscapes so vividly that the reader might look up from the page and being surprised not to see the Andes outside of their window. The myths and legends told by Mauro are captivating and only just begin to tell the readers about the beauty of the Colombian culture, how rich their heritage is.
Also, Engel doesn’t forget to show us the ugly and violet side of the country: there’s no sugar-coating, just an honest attempt at giving back dignity to a country too many times forgotten and misunderstood.

I found quite effective and interesting, towards the end, the decision to give voice to Karina and Nando, the other siblings left with Elena on the other side, in the States. Their story gets told as well, far from happy, correcting the idea that being in America means necessarily being on the right side of the border.

I found the ending slightly rushed in a sense that we are only briefly told about the things Mauro had to do to reach the rest of his family, and I don’t think a happy ending was needed in this kind of narration, as we all know how many families are sadly left stranded in the immigration mechanism every day, especially in North vs. South America dichotomy.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the story and I liked Engel’s style and writing. I highly recommend it and will surely read more from the author.

Infinite Country is a thought-provoking and insightful read. A story of love, sacrifices, heartache and longing.
It starts with Talia who has just escaped the correction facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia. She is desperately trying to get home to her father and her plane ticket to North America. If she misses her flight she would no doubt be taken back to the correction facility and as a result miss being reunited with her mother and siblings. How Talia and her father became separated from the rest of the family is told in such a way it reads like an autobiography. We discover how Talla’s parents met as teenagers and fell in love. They wanted a better life, away from civil war and social unrest. They set their sights on America and get there using a temporary visa. However, being undocumented in America came with its own risks and dangers. The writing flows in such an easy to read style, Keeping me turning the pages of their story and finding myself completely absorbed. My heart ached for the characters. They were so real and believable. This story broke my heart . A book I will always remember.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for this ARC.

Colombian Family Saga of Emigration.

Talia is on the run, attempting to get to the America her mother and two siblings call home, but is torn by leaving her father behind in Colombia,

Infinite Country starts with a bang. Unfortunately, the remainder of the book never matches that first exciting chapter.

The Colombian political upheavals are addressed in exposition style. While Engels appears to be aware of this trap, as she keeps the info-dumps mercifully brief, they remain nonetheless to pull the reader out of the story.

Elsewhere, the plight of immigrants living the US becomes a tick-list. While the separate incidents are undeniably harrowing, in combination they read as reportage more than one family's story, thereby losing conviction as a work of fiction.

The introduction of the voices of Talia's siblings at the tail end of the novel jarred.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for the ARC.

At the dawn of the new millennium, Colombia is a country devastated by half a century of violence. Elena and Mauro are teenagers when they meet, their blooming love an antidote to the mounting brutality of life in Bogotá. Once their first daughter is born and facing grim economic prospects, they set their sights on the United States.

This is a very thought-provoking, insightful and inspiring read, the author has done a very good job Despite the book being fiction, it is so hard-hitting that this could and most likely is in some ways happening in real life. This is a first for me by the author and I am very impressed and would happily own a hard copy of this book.

The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

An excellent read. The story plots the ups and downs in the life of a Columbian family trying to make a new start in the USA. The difficulties faced are enormous not least the attitude of white Americans to immigrants. The book also portrays life in Columbia and the poverty in which normal people live, the poverty that drives them to become illegal immigrants in the USA and therefore open to exploitation as cheap labour. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end and found myself constantly hoping that the family would find some kind of happiness in spite of all the obstacles put in their way.