Juan Gabriel Vásquez & Shahidha Bari: Retrospective

In Colombian novelist Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s latest book a film director is attending a retrospective of his work in Barcelona. Plagued by personal tragedy, Sergio Cabrera begins to recall the events that have marked him and his family, from the Spanish Civil War to the Chinese Cultural Revolution to the guerrilla wars in Latin America. Undoubtedly one of the finest novelists in Latin America, Vásquez deftly combines the personal with the political, the local with the global and the historical with the contemporary and Retrospective has been described by Mario Vargas Llosa as ‘one of the great novels to have been written in our language.’

Vásquez was in conversation with writer and broadcaster Shahidha Bari.

With thanks to the Cervantes Institute for supporting this event.