and its attitude toward Latinx immigrants, and Engel stands out as an especially gifted storyteller who elevates this saga through the use of Andean folk tales. Infinite Country joins a growing category of fiction about the U.S. She finally lands a job with a wealthy family, taking care of a son who forms a stronger bond with Elena than with his own mother. She is mistreated by one employer in a restaurant and disrespected by another. One of the novel’s multiple storylines follows Talia as she hitches rides back to Bogotá, where Mauro waits with a plane ticket to the United States, offering the possibility of a long-delayed family reunion.Īnother major storyline follows Elena, who tries to make a life for herself in New Jersey with her two older children. The story opens as Talia, now a nervy 15-year-old, breaks out of a Catholic reform school where she was sent after an impulsive, violent act. Unable to bring infant Talia to her minimum-wage jobs, mother Elena sent the child, the youngest of three, to live with Talia’s grandmother in Bogotá. They remained together until the father, Mauro, was briefly imprisoned and then deported. It’s an intriguing, compact tale, rife with both real-life implications and spiritual significance.Įscaping poverty in Colombia, the family initially arrived in the U.S. The fourth novel by Patricia Engel is a 21st-century odyssey about a Colombian family bifurcated by immigration rules.
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