It Would Be Night in Caracas - by Karina Sainz Borgo (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

As seen in the New York Times Book Review

Told with gripping intensity, It Would be Night in Caracas chronicles one woman's desperate battle to survive amid the dangerous, sometimes deadly, turbulence of modern Venezuela and the lengths she must go to secure her future.

"Echoes of Borges in a novel of war-torn Venezuela . . . the writing is tense and complex . . . dynamic." -The New York Times

In Caracas, Venezuela, Adelaida Falcón stands over an open grave. Alone, she buries her mother--the only family she has ever known--and worries that when night falls thieves will rob the grave. Even the dead cannot find peace here.

Adelaida had a stable childhood in a prosperous Venezuela that accepted immigrants in search of a better life, where she lived with her single-mother in a humble apartment. But now? Every day she lines up for bread that will inevitably be sold out by the time she reaches the registers. Every night she tapes her windows to shut out the tear gas raining down on protesters. When looters masquerading as revolutionaries take over her apartment, Adelaida must make a series of gruesome choices in order to survive in a country disintegrating into anarchy, where citizens are increasingly pitted against each other. But just how far is she willing to go?

A bold new voice from Latin America, Karina Sainz Borgo's touching, thrilling debut is an ode to the Venezuelan people and a chilling reminder of how quickly the world we know can crumble.

Translated from the Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer

Review Quotes

"The voice of a conscience... Dry, concise, direct, with an extraordinary stirring force... Sainz Borgo's novel is simply masterful." -- Fernando Aramburu, author of Homeland

"The next literary sensation." -- El Mundo

"A propulsively written, harrowing story, as desperate as it is timely." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Borgo's beautiful prose belies the brutal reality of the breakdown in civil society she lays bare in this powerful literary look at strife-torn Venezuela..." -- Booklist

"Sainz Borgo's excellent debut is a harrowing account of one woman grieving the recent death of her mother while attempting to survive the political unrest in Caracas, Venezuela." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Echoes of Borges in a novel of war-torn Venezuela...the writing is tense and complex...dynamic.” -- New York Times