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Like This Afternoon ForeverStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
Local DescriptionNovember 2019 DescriptionFor the last fifty years, the Colombian drug cartels, various insurgent groups, and the government have fought over the control of the drug traffic, in the process destroying vast stretches of the Amazon, devastating Indian communities, and killing tens of thousands of homesteaders caught in the middle of the conflict. Inspired by these events, Jaime Manrique's sixth novel, Like This Afternoon Forever, weaves in two narratives: the shocking story of a series of murders known internationally as "the false positives," and the related story of two gay Catholic priests who become lovers when they meet in the seminary. Lucas (the son of farmers) and Ignacio (a descendant of the Bar indigenous people) enter the seminary out of a desire to help others and to get an education. Their visceral love story undergoes stages of passion, indifference, rage, and a final commitment to stay together until the end of their lives. Working in a community largely composed of people displaced by the war, Ignacio stumbles upon the horrifying story of the false positives, which will put the lives of the two men in grave danger. ReviewsJaime Manrique has been named the recipient of the 2019 Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, presented by the Publishing Triangle "The author's sixth novel weaves together a series of murders and the story of two gay Catholic priests who become lovers." "A seasoned and venerated writer, Manrique sets his newest novel in his native Colombia, to reckon with the 'false positive' scandal, in which the military lured unsuspecting civilians to their deaths and then presented the bodies as defeated insurgents in order to inflate their victories...Manrique's elegant prose anchors this explosive storyline to the intimacy of love...Another excellent novel by a master storyteller." "Jaime Manrique's new literary novel of love and murder is based on a shocking (and little-reported in US media) crime--up to 10,000 poor and mentally disabled Colombian citizens were lured to remote areas of the country by the Colombian military, murdered, then presented to superiors as 'guerilla fighters' to inflate casualty numbers, in what's been dubbed the 'false positives' scandal. In Like This Afternoon Forever, two priests already forced to hide their forbidden love come across evidence of widespread government violence." "Against the backdrop of guerrilla warfare in Colombia, two young men fall in love while studying to become Catholic priests. Manrique, a recipient of Colombia's National Poetry Award as well as a Guggenheim fellowship, weaves into his story the 'false positives' scandal, in which members of the Colombian military sought to drum up the number of guerilla fighters they'd killed by murdering and misidentifying innocent civilians." "Manrique's drama of a dangerous love affair in a world of blood, terror, displacement, and desperation grapples with profound and persistent conflicts." Included in Magnify's Pride Month issue Included in Bay Area Reporter's Post-Pride reading list "His new book tells the romantic and tragedy-laced story of two priests--like Manrique, also country boys who moved to the bustling capital--whose love is threatened by the violence of a country with a long history of oppression." |