An evening with the Colombian novelist

Héctor Abad is a Colombian novelist, journalist and publisher and one of the finest contemporary Latin American writers. Join him for a discussion of his work and resurgent country.

The event launches the UK edition of his latest work, Oblivion, translated by Rosalind Harvey and Anne McLean (World Editions) and described by Fatima Bhutto as ‘a book so beautiful, it is a treasure and a heartbreak to read’ and by John Coetzee as ‘a tragic and unforgettable history’. Oblivion is a heartbreaking tribute to the author’s father, Héctor Abad Gómez who was a medical doctor, university professor, and human rights leader who set up public health programmes for the poor in Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city. But his criticism of the Colombian regime led to his brutal murder by paramilitaries in 1987. It was 20 years before Abad could start to tell his father’s story. Oblivion paints an unforgettable picture of a man who followed his conscience and paid for it with his life during one of the darkest periods in Latin America’s recent history. Transcending the political, it also shines as one of the most exquisitely written accounts of profound love between a father and son that modern literature has to offer.

The event will be followed by a book signing and wine reception.

Supported by the Instituto Cervantes, London

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