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The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

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The Sound of Things Falling

Author
Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Narrator
Adriana Cumming-Teicher
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing
Publish Date
11 June 2026
Run Time
8 hours 54 minutes
Format
Audiobook
Genre
Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Historical fiction

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Sound of Things Falling by Jan Gabriel Vásquez, read by Adriana Cumming-Teicher

Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Winner of the Alfaguara Prize
Winner of the Gregor von Rezzori Prize

'A powerful, humane novel about a man trying to make sense of a war he didn’t choose to fight' The Times

'The story is compelling but through Vásquez’s vivid prose (rendered brilliantly into English by the award-winning translator Anne McLean) it also becomes haunting … A poignant and perturbing tale about the inheritance of fear in a country scrabbling to regain its soul' Financial Times

No sooner does he get to know Ricardo Laverde in a seedy billiard hall in Bogotá than Antonio Yammara realises that the ex-pilot has a secret. Antonio's fascination with his new friend's life grows until the day Ricardo receives a mysterious, unmarked cassette.

Shortly afterwards, he is shot dead on a street corner.

Yammara's investigation into what happened leads back to the early 1960s, marijuana smuggling and a time before the cocaine trade trapped Colombia in a living nightmare.

Critics Review

  • A powerful, humane novel about a man trying to make sense of a war he didn’t choose to fight

    Kate Saunders, The Times

  • The story is compelling but through Vásquez’s vivid prose (rendered brilliantly into English by the award-winning translator Anne McLean) it also becomes haunting … A poignant and perturbing tale about the inheritance of fear in a country scrabbling to regain its soul

    Financial Times

  • Compelling ... He holds his narrative together with admirable stylistic control as he shows a world falling apart and the powers of love and language to rebuild it

    Anita Sethi, Observer

  • A compelling and original psychological thriller

    Daily Telegraph

See more reviews
  • Excellent ... Vasquez follows Balzac's maxim that "novels are the private history of nations"

    Sunday Telegraph

  • A gripping novel, absorbing right to the end

    Edmund White, New York Times Book Review

  • The narrative escalates, the mystery deepens, and the scope of the story widens with each page. This terrific novel draws on Colombia’s tragic history and cycles of violence to tell the story of a troubled man trying to come to grips with the distant forces and events that have shaped his life

    Khaled Hosseini, Books of the Year 2013

User Reviews

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Details
Author
Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Narrator
Adriana Cumming-Teicher
Duration
8 hours 54 minutes
Release Date
11 June 2026
ISBN
9781037202674
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre
Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Historical fiction

Synopsis

Bloomsbury presents The Sound of Things Falling by Jan Gabriel Vásquez, read by Adriana Cumming-TeicherWinner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardWinner of the Alfaguara PrizeWinner of the Gregor von Rezzori Prize'A powerful, humane novel about a man trying to make sense of a war he didn’t choose to fight' The Times'The story is compelling but through Vásquez’s vivid prose (rendered brilliantly into English by the award-winning translator Anne McLean) it also becomes haunting … A poignant and perturbing tale about the inheritance of fear in a country scrabbling to regain its soul' Financial TimesNo sooner does he get to know Ricardo Laverde in a seedy billiard hall in Bogotá than Antonio Yammara realises that the ex-pilot has a secret. Antonio's fascination with his new friend's life grows until the day Ricardo receives a mysterious, unmarked cassette.Shortly afterwards, he is shot dead on a street corner.Yammara's investigation into what happened leads back to the early 1960s, marijuana smuggling and a time before the cocaine trade trapped Colombia in a living nightmare.

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