The dark, brilliant new novel by the author of The Informers and The Secret History of Costaguana.No sooner does he get to know Ricardo Laverde than disaffected young Colombian lawyer Antonio Yammara realises that his new friend has a secret, or rather several secrets. Antonio's fascination with the life of ex-pilot Ricardo Laverde begins by casual acquaintance in a seedy Bogot billiard hall and grows until the day Ricardo receives a cassette tape in an unmarked envelope. Asking Antonio to find him somewhere private to play it, they go to a library. The first time he glances up from his seat in the next booth, Antonio sees tears running down Laverde's cheeks, the next, the ex-pilot has gone. Shortly afterwards, Ricardo is shot dead on a street corner in Bogot by a guy on the back of a motorbike and Antonio is caught in the hail of bullets. Lucky to survive, and more out of love with life than ever, he starts asking questions until the questions become an obsession that leads him to Laverde's daughter. His troubled investigation leads all the way back to the early 1960s, marijuana smuggling and a time before the cocaine trade trapped a whole generation of Colombians in a living nightmare of fear and random death. Juan Gabriel Vasquez is one of the leading novelists of his generation, and The Sound of Things Falling that tackles what became of Colombia in the time of Pablo Escobar is his best book to date.

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Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardWinner of the Alfaguara PrizeWinner of the Gregor von Rezzori Prize'A powerful, humane novel about a man trying to make sense of a war he didn't choose to fight' The Times'The story is compelling but through V squez's vivid prose (rendered brilliantly into English by the award-winning translator Anne McLean) it also becomes haunting A poignant and perturbing tale about the inheritance of fear in a country scrabbling to regain its soul' Financial TimesNo sooner does he get to know Ricardo Laverde in a seedy billiard hall in Bogot than Antonio Yammara realises that the ex-pilot has a secret. Antonio's fascination with his new friend's life grows until the day Ricardo receives a mysterious, unmarked cassette.Shortly afterwards, he is shot dead on a street corner.Yammara's investigation into what happened leads back to the early 1960s, marijuana smuggling and a time before the cocaine trade trapped Colombia in a living nightmare.