The Sound of Things Falling

Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vasquez hits it out of the ballpark with his novel The Sound of Things Falling.  From the first page to the last, this book had me absolutely riveted.  Its a quiet, almost sleeper sort of book, and the translation is gorgeous.  The narrator is a young law professor named Antonio Yammara, who meets Ricardo Leverde at the local pool hall.  As he slowly learns about Leverde's life, and in particular, the love of his life Elaine Fritts who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia, he becomes more intrigued and intertwined with Leverde's story, eventually leading him to meet Leverde's daughter who lives a reclusive life as a beekeeper outside of Bogota.  A really beautiful, captivating book, ultimately about how we can become intertwined in each other's life stories, which can both wound us and heal us deeply.  Read this one!