«La prosa de Botero es de una precisión quirúrgica: narra los acontecimientos como si fuera un escalpelo abriendo la piel de la realidad . -Mario Mendoza

El encuentro fortuito entre dos amigos de la infancia es el detonante de esta novela, la cual nos lleva a recorrer la vida de un empresario exitoso y adinerado con un pasado enigmático. Su nombre: Sebastián Sarmiento. Su tragedia: haber perdido a sus seres más queridos. La consecuencia: un sentimiento de culpa que jamás lo abandona. La historia de Sebastián toma rumbos insospechados debido a circunstancias tan simples como una rama seca tirada en el camino, una llamada realizada en el instante preciso y el andar a la deriva por una calle cualquiera.

Esas casualidades, y muchas más, son las que determinan el destino del protagonista, y Juan Carlos Botero se vale de ellas para demostrar que no existen hechos intrascendentes, pues un detalle, por más mínimo que parezca, puede cambiar radicalmente el curso de los acontecimientos y desatar una ola de eventos inesperados. Nuestra fortuna deja de pertenecernos cuando se lanzan los dados y nos convertimos, para ventura o desventura, en caprichos de la suerte.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

«Botero's writing has a surgical precision: he tells all the events as if he owns a scalpel to open the skin of our reality . -Mario Mendoza

Roberto Mendoza is a writer who reconstructs the life of an old schoolmate named Sebastián Sarmiento, a rich, widowed businessman from Bogotá. Throughout the novel, Roberto composes the story of Sebastián Sarmiento, who at first appears to be an enigmatic character. We learn that his father was assassinated when Sebastián was a child, that he had to leave the country, that he later returned and became a communications magnate, that he was kidnapped, and that he was finally forced to flee Colombia for good.

Roberto's narration is complemented by letters in which Sebastián speaks in the first person. In these missives, Sebastián brings out the feelings of guilt that he carries for the death of his father, his wife, and his friend Rafael, all of whom died due to casual events he instigated himself. This sense of guilt will never abandon Sebastián, and it will transform into the collective guilt that all Colombians carry because of our convulsive and violent past.