Infinite Country

For fans of Edwidge Danticat and Valeria Luiselli, a poignant and poetic book about a deported Colombian family that provides a close-up view of a situation that a great number of people have gone through and are now going through.

After fifty years of bloodshed, Colombia is in ruins at the start of the new millennium. When Elena and Mauro first meet, they are teens, and their budding romance serves as a counterbalance to the growing violence in Bogotá. After the birth of their first daughter, they decide to move to the US due to the dire economic situation.

They decide whether to risk overstaying their tourist visas by traveling to Houston and sending money back to Elena's mother, or they decide to go back to Bogotá. Their choice to disregard their departure dates puts the young family in the risky position of being undocumented, endangering an already difficult life as their family grows and they travel frequently. After Mauro is deported, Elena, who is now responsible for their three young children, has to make a tough decision that will lessen her workload but further sever the family.

As the daughter of Colombian immigrants and a dual citizen, award-winning and internationally acclaimed author Patricia Engel lends her voice to Mauro and Elena, as well as their children, Karina, Nando, and Talia. All of them navigate a divided existence, weighing their allegiance to the past, the future, one another, and themselves. A tale of two nations and one mixed-status family, Infinite Country is rich with Bogotá urban life, steeped in Andean mythology, and tense with the everyday reality for the undocumented in America. For them, every victory is laced with regret and every dream pursued carries the weight of a dream postponed.