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Title details for The Lucky Ones by Julianne Pachico - Available

The Lucky Ones

A Novel

by Julianne Pachico
Marisol Ramirez
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
A literary jigsaw puzzle of a debut novel set in Colombia during the peak of its decades-long conflict, and in New York City
While her parents are away, a teenager finds herself home alone, with the household staff mysteriously gone, no phone connection, and news of an insurgency on the radio—and then she hears a knock at the door. Her teacher, who has been kidnapped by guerrillas, recites Shakespeare in the jungle to a class of sticks, leaves, and stones while his captors watch his every move. Another classmate, who has fled Colombia for the clubs of New York, is unable to forget the life she left behind without the help of the little bags of powder she carries with her. Taking place over two decades, The Lucky Ones presents us with a world in which perpetrators are indistinguishable from saviors, the truth is elusive, and loved ones can disappear without a trace.
A prismatic tale of a group of characters who emerge and recede throughout the novel and touch one another’s lives in ways even they cannot comprehend, The Lucky Ones captures the intensity of life in Colombia as paramilitaries, guerrillas, and drug traffickers tear the country apart. Combining vivid descriptions of life under siege with a hallucinatory feel that befits its violent world, The Lucky Ones introduces a truly original and exciting new voice in fiction.
Praise for The Lucky Ones
“A blunt, fresh and unsentimental look inside Colombia’s last thirty bloody years . . . an enjoyable and freaky joy ride. . . . [Julianne] Pachico conveys the fear that Colombian children grow up with—she made that pit in my stomach open up again. . . . At the end you’ll come out of this ride with a better understanding of Colombia’s surreal state of affairs.”—Silvana Paternostro, The New York Times Book Review
“[A] brilliantly wacked-out collection of linked stories about Colombia’s long civil war.”—New York
“An expansive tapestry of a debut.”—Elle
“Thrilling . . . The Lucky Ones is no ordinary coming-of-age novel. Julianne Pachico’s remarkably inventive debut navigates what it means to grow up wealthy amid the reality of conflict in Colombia.”—The Atlantic
"Nothing is conventionally cohesive in The Lucky Ones, with its looping sense of time and fractured narrative structure. But there is an enduring sense of an ungovernable world unraveling, even as the disparate strands of this deeply affecting novel finally converge.”—Paste
“In finely calibrated prose, this stirring novel plumbs the fates of those who struggled against the Colombian political upheaval that began in the ‘90s.”—O Magazine
“Relentlessly rewarding . . . with traces of Gabriel García Márquez’s News of a Kidnapping, Pachico’s unapologetically immersive first novel brings life to a South American struggle often forgotten in global headlines.”—Booklist
“Riveting . . . Having lived in Colombia until she turned eighteen, Pachico has a firsthand connection to the country’s charms and troubles that shines through on every gripping page.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Julianne Pachico’s tough and stunning novel set in both the Colombian and New York drug jungles kept this reader up all night and made her double-check that her front door was locked tight.”—Lily Tuck, National Book...

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 7, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780735284753
      • File size: 234375 KB
      • Duration: 08:08:16

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The mixture of politics, friendship and the media causes a struggle among four women whose desire for power gets in the way of their friendship. The excitement of the novel is fueled by a presidential election and a hostage crisis, but Kathleen O'Malley fails to deliver excitement. The first half of the book is reported like a history lesson. Whether she's reading dialogue or the chronological events of the novel, her disinterest in the material carries over to the ear. The bonus is the preview of an Olivia Goldsmith novel read by Frances Cassidy, who makes you wish she had read the previous story. Her lyrical reading brings you inside the action; O'Malley's leaves you outside. J.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 16, 2017
      Pachico’s history-bound debut novel is a carefully yet fiercely composed collage of voices that bears witness to the executions, forced disappearances, and other atrocities that took place in Colombia from 1993 to 2013 during the country’s violent civil war. The book provides a searing glimpse into the conflict through 11 interconnected short stories—each focusing on a different aspect of the struggle. The novel’s riveting first installment, “Lucky,” takes place in 2003 and sets an ominous tone. In it, a young girl is holed up inside her family’s mansion while they’re away for the weekend. What she doesn’t know—but begins to suspect as she hears a knock at the door—is that they’re never coming back. In “Lemon Pie,” one of the strongest vignettes in the book, an American former middle school teacher has been held captive by the FARC for “five years, eight months, two weeks, and five days.” When not locked in a shed, he passes the time via sessions of “Parasite Squishing” and by delivering lectures from memory on Hamlet and The Scarlet Letter to his class of twigs, leaves, and trees in the Amazonian jungle. The most unique story is “Junkie Rabbit,” a twisted glimpse into a rabbit warren filled with bunnies subsisting on the last remnants of coca plants from a ransacked estate. Having lived in Colombia until she turned 18, Pachico has a firsthand connection to the country’s charms and troubles that shines through on every gripping page.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Pachico's audiobook explores the Colombian conflict of 1993 to 2013 through the perspectives of many characters of various stations in life in and around the city of Cali. Narrators Marisol Ramirez and Ramon de Ocampo help to provide some differentiation to the series of short stories, which are all interrelated in some way, mostly through their characters--though some of these relationships may seem elusive because they're revealed over time, and the listener may find it challenging to keep up. The narrators both pronounce Spanish words and place names well, placing the characters in the context of a conflict that is unforgiving, whether physically, psychologically, or both. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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