Jaime Manrique

This novel tells the story of Lucas, whose mother left his violent father and managed to make a life for the two of them, and of Ignacio, son of indigenous subsistence farmers, both of whom showed an aptitude for learning which led to them being given the opportunity to go to a Catholic boarding school with the promise of being able to attend university and become priests. When they meet, they quickly become close friends, and then discover a love that would keep them together for the rest of their lives.

Colombia during the nineties and early 2000s was a violent place with many rural areas under the control of guerrilla groups and the military matching them in ruthlessness and corruption. As Lucas and Ignacio grow up in Catholic boarding schools and then go to university, Lucas grows stronger in his faith and Ignacio's fierce intelligence has him exploring the history of liberation theology. After they are ordained, they are sent into different neighborhoods in Bogota. Ignacio is sent to the most crime-ridden and poor parish, where he works hard to improve the lives of his parishioners and where he learns about the "false positives," and tries to get that story out into the world. Both his activism and his homosexuality put Ignacio into great danger.

This is a novel with a lot going on, so much so that it sometimes feels like a summary. The passages where Manrique slows down and describes the setting or the relationship between the men, the writing is beautiful and the story a lovely, if melancholic one.… (más)

I received an advanced copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. I thought the themes and storylines of this book were rich and intriguing, but just not completely fleshed out. The main story is of two gay priests Lucas and Ignacio....for which we receive great detail of Lucas' early life, but once he meets Ignacio, it seems we learn more from Ignacio's point of view from then to the end of the story. The "false positives" portion of the story was intriguing but without any resolution. The book just seemed to end abruptly,… (más)

In Colombia, both sensitive Lucas and angry Ignacio accept from an early age that the priesthood offers the only path to a productive adulthood for intelligent homosexual boys like themselves. After entering the seminary as adolescents, they make a powerful and deep connection that becomes a strong sexual relationship that continues off and on for their entire lives. But can their love withstand the threats of daily life in their war-torn country and the tensions produced by their conflicting personalities? And what future can there be in a place where violence colors every aspect of life?

This book describes a Catholic establishment that looks the other way at homosexual and drug-abusing priests, but is unwilling to stand up to the political leaders who have mired the people in poverty and violence. Both Ignacio and Lucas are interesting, vital characters who manage to do some good despite the forces opposing them, but who are often overwhelmed by the scale of the problems they cannot solve single-handedly. Author Manrique, a poet, includes several very powerful descriptive scenes of haunting violence as well as moments of beauty, and does a great job of articulating the despair and the affection his characters feel. I would have liked to see less narrative distance between the reader and the story and more in-the-moment writing, as I felt these were the strongest parts of the book. The final chapter was quite moving.… (más)