# The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Paperback)

**Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019**  
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"Like Don DeLillo's JFK-themed _Libra_****, the novel is an intoxicating blend of fact and fiction"** _**Glasgow Herald**_  
  
**"A masterful writer" Nicole Krauss**  
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"Vasquez has succeeded García Márquez as the literary grandmaster of Colombia" Ariel Dorfman, _New York Review of Books_**  
  
**"A dazzlingly choreographed network of echoes and mirrorings" T.L.S.**  
  
It takes the form of personal and formal investigations into two political assassinations - the murders of Rafael Uribe Uribe in 1914, the man who inspired García Márquez's General Buendia in _One Hundred Years of Solitude,_ and of the charismatic Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the man who might have been Colombia's J.F.K., gunned down on the brink of success in the presidential elections of 1948. Separated by more than 30 years, the two murders at first appear unconnected, but as the novel progresses Vásquez reveals how between them they contain the seeds of the violence that has bedevilled Colombia ever since.  
  
_T__he Shape of the Ruins_ is Vásquez's most ambitious, challenging and rewarding novel to date. His previous novel, _The Sound of Things Falling,_ won Spain's Alfaguara Prize, Italy's Von Rezzori Prize and the 2014 Dublin IMPAC literary Award.  
  
**_Winner of the Prémio Literário Casino da Póvoa 2018_**  
**_Finalist for the Bienal de Novela Mario Vargas Llosa 2016_**  
**_Finalist for the Premio Bottari Lattes Grinzane 2017_**  
**_Finalist for the Prix Fémina_**  
**_Finalist for the Prix Médicis_**  
  
**Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean**

## Details

- **Price:** 9.99 GBP
- **Vendor:** Maclehose Press
- **Tags:** All Books, Thrillers

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 9.99 GBP | In stock |

## Images

- The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez book cover

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> Updated: 2026-09-13