“Feast of the Innocents by Evelio Rosero

A doctor who’s in a terrible marriage, living in Pasto, is trying to yeah people the truth about the venerated Simon Bolivar on a holiday called Feast of the Innocents in Columbia.

It has a super strange setup for this kind of book in my opinion. I did learn more about Bolivar and the terrible things he did in Pasto, but did I enjoy this book? It was OK. I didn’t hate it but the ending was unsatisfying. The book just fizzled out at the end, there wasn’t a strong ending.

There are lots of interesting interesting elements in the book:

• Doctor’s very weird relationship to his wife
• Doctor writing a history book about Bolivar
• Professor in town also shares unconventional views of Bolivar
• Marxist group trying to stop professor and the doctor
• Retelling of stories about Bolivar from survivors

I really wanted to like this book but it didn’t come together for me despite all those interesting elements. I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody unless they are specifically interested in Columbian history and/or Simon Bolivar.

Rating: ★★

Book #82 in my My 2019 Reading Challenge