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The Informers

by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

3.25 · rating details · 196 ratings · 42 reviews

A virtuosic novel about family, history, memory, and betrayal from the brightest new Latin American literary talent working today.

When Gabriel Santoro's biography is scathingly reviewed by his own father, a public intellectual and famous Bogotá rhetorician, Gabriel could not imagine what had pierced his icy exterior to provoke such a painful reaction. A volume that catalo...more

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published July 30th 2009 by Riverhead Hardcover (first published 2004)

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Nov 30, 2011

Malcolm rated it

Shelves: blech

If you like to stare into the mirror for hours until you see your parents, this book might be for you.

With at least a small amount of deference to Sr. Vasquez, I have to say that this book was a dull journey through self-reflection that likely lost a tremendous amount of flavor in translation.

The fact that this book is based on Columbian history from WWII put me at a disadvantage, because I know nothing about Columbian history. Thus, without further research, I found mys...moreIf you like to stare into the mirror for hours until you see your parents, this book might be for you.

With at least a small amount of deference to Sr. Vasquez, I have to say that this book was a dull journey through self-reflection that likely lost a tremendous amount of flavor in translation.

The fact that this book is based on Columbian history from WWII put me at a disadvantage, because I know nothing about Columbian history. Thus, without further research, I found myself feeling as if I was the least important member of a group discussion happening between the author and his various characters, and while I am merely the reader in this relationship, I felt that perhaps I was in my rights to hope to be included more.

While I like to believe I am not a dolt, much of the nuance and intrinsic tension hidden in the turn of phrases of the original language were surely flying over my head while I trudged through the 77 pages that I could bring myself to read. Even though I speak very little Spanish, even "Los Soplones" strikes me as a more powerful term than "the informers." I would have liked to have the deviousness and darkness of "the black lists" that this book references be caught more (perhaps "The Betrayers" for example).

The fact that the publisher decided to be artistic and collapse dialog into the same paragraph without line breaks (as in "Why are you going there?""Because I wish too.""Oh.") just added to the difficulty in sussing out the subtleties that Sr. Vasquez likely planted between the lines; I fear deeply that much of the Columbian spice didn't make it across the translation.

Now, given all of that failure on the part of the English producers, I might have still succeeded to the top of this mountain of a book save for one thing: this is a book by a writer, about a writer, who reflects on a years long tension that he has had with his father, also a writer, about a book that the writer son wrote about one of his father's closest friends and the review that his father wrote about the book that he wrote about the life of this friend during a time when people were giving each other up to lists of names that were, well, written down -- the Black Lists. There's a LOT of writing going on about writing -- and the book spirals inward, leaving descriptive text to the side like so many faded flowers in a hospital room filled with dying writers.

While Sr. Vasquez may have an astonishingly lovely navel, I just could not bring myself to stare at it as long, or as deeply as he did himself.

I find it most telling that my edition of this book has a few weakly charming reviews written on the dust cover -- and every single one of them is by an author ... you know ... writers.(less)

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Jun 11, 2010

Lambeam rated it

· review of another edition

During the second world war, the Colombian government created a "black list" so that no one of German descent or anyone sympathetic to the Axis powers would be in a position to aid and abet the enemy. People found themselves on the list for acts as random as the Japanese grocer who happened to make a delivery to the Spanish Embassy. Others found themselves on the list through acts of betrayal. The book centers around the guilt of an "informer" who exposed a friend and never...more

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Jun 26, 2011

Greg rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: latin-america, fiction, nonfiction

From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2011/06/...

Juan Gabriel Vásquez's The Informers annoyed me at times. It sagged in the middle, but is beautifully written and engaging enough to continue on. The plot centers on Colombia during and just after World War II, as Germans (both Jews and Nazis) arrived and sought refuge. The main character Gabriel Santoro published a book on the topic, based on the story of a family friend. His father, a famous professor of rhetoric, trashed the book p...more

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Sep 20, 2009

Rick rated it

Shelves: fiction

The Informers is the story of two Colombian men, a father and son with the same name, whose estrangement over the father’s caustic, dismissive review of the son’s oral history of a family friend, a GermanJew who came to Colombia in the 1930s, ends when the father has heart surgery. However, the wounds from the estrangement and from the surgery have hardly healed when the father dies in a car crash on the road from Medillin to Bogota and what the son understood about the father is suddenly and pu...moreThe Informers is the story of two Colombian men, a father and son with the same name, whose estrangement over the father’s caustic, dismissive review of the son’s oral history of a family friend, a GermanJew who came to Colombia in the 1930s, ends when the father has heart surgery. However, the wounds from the estrangement and from the surgery have hardly healed when the father dies in a car crash on the road from Medillin to Bogota and what the son understood about the father is suddenly and publicly in question. The heart surgery represented a second life to the father, one in which he would remedy some things, which to the son meant fix his relationship with him and perhaps adopt a less intolerant soul. When it’s cut short (six months of a second life), the son learns more of what was behind his father’s lifelong reticence to discuss the recent past, his life and that of his friends.

Early in the novel, before the surgery, Gabriel, the father, says to his son, “Memory isn’t public, Gabriel.” It’s an important direct address because it suggests not only the protective rationalization that the father clings to but also underscores that in this battle of secrets and inquiries whenever one Gabriel addresses the other he is also addressing himself. Statements like memory isn’t public become questions. The word “informers” has a double meaning too, one a generic description of those who provide us with information our research requires and the more political meaning, someone who informs against a neighbor, friend or family member in times of political fear. Blacklists, the father knows are built by informers, a system of political manipulation that gives power to the weak, “and the weak are the majority.” Colombia had its period of blacklists during the World War II where in support of the Allied cause the government interned German nationals and Colombians of German descent if suspected of Nazi sympathies. Fifty years after the war, journalists for high and low ends use informers to present their stories about corruption, the past, scandals both personal and political. The son’s first book, A Life in Exile, requires a sequel, which the novel pretends to be, The Informers that challenges our ability to learn memory’s secrets, history’s truth, because the son needs to understand professionally and personally the implications of his father’s life. He had believed that his first book proved that he could with research and sincere, if rigorously cold-hearted effort, give “shape to other’s people’s lives, stealing what’s happened to them, which is always disordered and confused, and [put:] it in order on paper; justifying in some more or less honorable way, the curiousity I’ve always felt.”

The curiosity remains but the conviction that we can satisfy it is challenged in this thoughtful, compelling novel. Vasquez, to my knowledge, has now written two novels and one collection of stories, though this appears to be the first to be translated into English. I’m eager for his earlier fiction to be translated and to see what new works come our way from a clearly talented and likely important young writer.(less)

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Oct 12, 2009

Ruth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: recently-read

Fascinating look at a place in time & groups of people I knew nothing about--German immigrants (Jews, Nazis, & others) & their Colombian friends in & around Bogota, Colombia, in the pre- & post-WWII years, & decades afterward when secrets are revealed & attention is refocused on events of those years.

I didn't know, for example, that after the war the U.S. sent the Colombian government a list of names of "Nazis & collaborators" in that country & insisted that they be rounded...more

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Oct 14, 2009

Philip rated it

Recommended to Philip by: NPR

Heard Bob Edwards interview Vasquez on NPR - I like stories where the past casts its shadow on the present, and things and people are revealed to be not quite as they seemed . . .

10/14/09: I grew weary of this novel by the time I was half-way through, although I soldiered-on and finished it - maybe I missed something in the supposedly-crucial scene that Bob Edwards and the author discussed in the radio interview, but I really don't know what Gabriel Santoro's great transgression was....more

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Jan 01, 2011

Scott rated it

· review of another edition

In this novel, the son of a prominent Colombian scholar traces the many forms that betrayal takes in the lives of his family and friends in post-war Bogota. The primary thread throughout the novel follows the father's acts as an informer on German expats during WWII and the consequences of this betrayal in the decades that followed. Other characters are vehicles for exploring betrayal in the search for knowledge, betrayal in the context of love, and the betrayal of one's own self-disclosures. ...more

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Jul 01, 2011

Isla McKetta rated it

· review of another edition

Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s novel, <span class=" fbUnderline">The Informers</span>, is a collection of three stories wrapped together in a brilliant structure. Rather than three consecutive books forming a trilogy, the action of the second book (the one we are reading) takes place after the first has been published. Vasquez reveals little of the text of the first book, the story of the exile of a family friend from Germany in Colombia during and after World War II, to the read...more

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Jul 04, 2010

Tim rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: foreign-lit, fiction

If someone mentions South America and Nazis, what comes to mind? For many, it's the seemingly ubiquitous idea of Nazis escaping there after the war. While the concept has at least a few kernels of truth, it ignores or pushes aside events that swept up Latin America during the war.

South American writers, though, recognize that even if their nations were not combatants, they were not immune from the effects of Nazism and World War II. Chilean author Roberto Bolaño, in fact, created ...more

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May 21, 2010

Darryl rated it

· review of another edition

In 1988 the Colombian journalist Gabriel Santoro published his first book, a biography of Sara Guterman, a longtime family friend of Jewish descent who fled Nazi Germany along with her parents in the mid 1930s. He is surprised to read a scathing review of the book in a national newspaper, which demeans both the book and its author. However, the most shocking revelation is that the anonymous author of this review is his father, Gabriel Sr., a respected law professor in Bogotá, who refuses to reve...more

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Dec 27, 2009

Jim Coughenour rated it

Shelves: too-dull-to-finish

I made it 3/4 of the way through this book. Another reviewer used the term "soldiered on" – and it's an apt description of my own exhaustion. Characters refuse to come to life, surprising tragic turns fail to be tragic or surprising, endless episodes of constipated reflection fail to move either the mind or the imagination. Written with an obvious and deliberate intensity, it succeeds in being intensely inert. It appears to have been written by an (unfortunately) articulate zombie.

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May 02, 2010

JoEllen rated it

· review of another edition

Everyone would love this. Best use of language of anything I've read in a long time. You can get lost in the beauty of the words--the translator deserves much credit. For others--you may love the story--how writers are "informers;" how German Colombians "informed" on other German Colombians during WWII and had them put on blacklists--ruined forever. The repercussions of actions 50 years in the past; repercussions of telling the story. One person's memory, another person's...more

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Oct 31, 2009

F.R. rated it

· review of another edition

This novel deals with German emigrants to Colombia in the forties and the blacklists that sprung up as a response. It’s certainly a part of history I knew nothing about (although, admittedly, Colombian history is not my strong point) and it has some interesting points to make. However, I found the prose – or at least this translation of it – to be dry and wilfully dense, so that a lot of my initial interest had evaporated by the time I staggered to the finish.

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Jan 11, 2010

Jess rated it

Shelves: family, south-america, fiction

This novel hinges on the multiple meanings of the word "informer": a man informs on his friend's dad. A son gains information about his father, which itself has been informed by the musings of a family friend. The story opens (deepens might be a better word) like a babushka doll, with one plot nestled in another nestled in another. The reward for all your hard work is a new understanding of a difficult time in one country's history.

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Mar 22, 2010

Tuck rated it

despite blurbs from john banville, vargas llosa, carlos Fuentes, colm toibin, this isn't the greatest thing since garcia marquez. but it IS GOOD, novel about modern Colombia, what they remember (about fascism in the 1940's, and beyond) and what they choose to forget. in spain, they call it the great forgetting, or the silence, in how they deal with their horrid civil war. in colombia, they tell half-truths, opposite truths,. what do we tell ourselves in usa? patriotic mf's.

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Aug 05, 2009

Robert rated it

I read an advance of this earlier this year, but didnt want to post anything until it arrived.

This is one of my top 5 favorite novel's of the year. It tells a little discussed chapter of Latin American history (the tensions between Jewish German immigrants and German Nazi immigrants to Colombia during and after WW II. It also plays with time and voice in a way that reminded me of Ian McEwan's Attonement.

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Dec 12, 2010

Rahdragonfly rated it

· review of another edition

Not perfect. Typical South American writer, and thats not always a bad thing, BUT I found myself reaching for a reason to finish this book. It was good, just not great, thanks to just a few faults that I can't be sure are even the writers and that I attribute to a clunky english translator.

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Jan 25, 2011

obfuscations rated it

· review of another edition

an engaging tale at the heart of this novel is swamped by meta-narrative ... Vasquez's reasons for superimposing multiple layers of storytelling are clear and at times the technique elucidates his themes of memory and betrayal ... but he simply overdoes it and the book bogs down terribly ... i bailed just past mid-point

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Feb 04, 2011

Elsje rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-2008, recensieboek

Ik kreeg De informanten van uitgeverij Signatuur om te recenseren. Een roman van de Colombiaan Juan Gabriel Vásquez, met als aanbeveling op de blurb dat het een soort Philip Roth moet zijn. De vertaling is van Brigitte Coopmans.

Het verhaal
De Colombiaanse schrijver Gabriel Santoro [een alter ego van Vásquez?] is gebrouilleerd met zijn vader. Dat komt doordat hij een boek geschreven heeft over het leven van een goede vriendin van zijn vader, de vlak voor WOII uit Duitsland naar Colo...more

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Dec 14, 2010

Heather rated it

· review of another edition

This is a fascinating story about the country & people of Columbia (and specifically German immigrants during WWII) that reveals itself in twists and turns. Betrayal is the theme and permeates all aspects of the story. I liked it, but didn't love it, mostly because the non-linear telling of the story somehow diminished it's power & suspense for me.

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Oct 24, 2010

Chris rated it

· review of another edition

I really appreciated this book for the issues it raises on the dynamics of informing -- about others, about our own lives. I had a slightly difficult time sticking with it which is the only reason I'm not rating it higher.

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Jul 24, 2011

Peter Dunn rated it

· review of another edition

I only really picked up this book because I am a bit of a Joseph Conrad fan. I had acquired Juan Gabriel Vasquez’s ‘The Secret History of Costaguanato’ to see what he did with Conrad as a character even though I am normally wary of books that use dead authors as characters. On a whim I thought I ought to read his earlier book ‘The Informers’ first.

That worked out rather well as decision as this was such a good read that I am looking forward even more to ‘The Secret History of Cos...more

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Oct 31, 2011

Benjamin rated it

· review of another edition

Blending past and present in Bogota, Columbia, The Informers is a dense exploration of family and cultural history. The middle section drags a bit but overall the book is well-written and offers a sense of mystery as old betrayals are unearthed.

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Feb 19, 2010

Alexasapp rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

A very personal non autobiographical novel placed in a familiar environment. Rich emotional content. He author takes you on a trip, slowly unraveling a deeply hidden secret.

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Sep 22, 2009

Marlaina rated it

Shelves: hated-and-didn-t-finish, fiction

this book sucked. BOOOO JUAN GABRIEL VASQUEZ. very very dry. don't even read this book. It will make your head spin and make you snore at the same time.

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Oct 31, 2010

Ann rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: didn-t-finish

Boring. One of the main characters talks on and on about things that happened when she was a child. It reads like a dry lecture. The situations don't come alive at all. I finally gave up about half way through. There are too many good books out there to keep plowing through this one.

I've learned that there were blacklists and persecutions of German Jews in Bogotá, Columbia during WWII, but I can't see that the book is going anywhere beyond bringing that fact to light. Since I kno...more

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Sep 22, 2009

Miss GP rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Those who like DeLillo and/or Hazzard

Recommended to Miss GP by: Bookbrowse.com

I found this book exceptionally difficult to follow. The narration was at times three layers deep (one person relaying someone else's story, telling a third person's tale -- all three ing the first-person), with no change in narrative voice. The story was told in flashbacks, but was non-chronological (flashbacks within flashbacks, the plot going back or forward in time, "stream of conciousness" style). It will probably appeal to those who love books based on writing quality, as the w...more

like 1 like

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Jan 03, 2011

Barb rated it

· review of another edition

Very hard to get through and not worth the effort. Too confusing and not great character development.

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Feb 07, 2012

Krishna Kumar rated it

· review of another edition

The author is Juan Gabriel Vasquez and the translator Anne McLean.

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May 09, 2010

Moira is currently reading it · review of another edition

except i am reading it in spanish!

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About Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Estudió Derecho en su ciudad natal, en la Universidad del Rosario, y después de graduarse, partió a Francia, donde se instaló en París (1996-99). Allí, en La Sorbona se doctoró en Literatura Latinoamericana. Luego se mudó a un pequeño pueblo de la región de Ardenas, en Bélgica. Después de un año de vivir allí, Vásquez se instaló en Barcelona, donde reside hasta hoy.

Vásquez es autor de ...more

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