Shooting Down Heaven
About this ebook
After twelve years away, Larry comes home to Colombia when his father, an old associate of Pablo Escobar, is murdered. Larry plans to collect his father’s remains and give him a proper burial . . . but his childhood friend Pedro has other plans. Picking him up at the airport, Pedro takes him directly to the Alborada celebration in Medellín—where Larry’s long-awaited homecoming takes an increasingly grim turn.
The years of luxury living in bodyguard-surrounded mansions are over. Larry watches his family—including his ex-beauty queen mother and troubled brother—fall deeper into depression, drug addiction, and the traps of the family business. Now Larry must confront his family’s turbulent history while protecting himself from the dark remnants of a lost and struggling city. Unflinching and remarkably controlled, Jorge Franco’s Shooting Down Heaven is a stunning portrait of a generation wounded by their parents’ mistakes.
About the author
Jorge Franco was born in Medellín, Colombia. He studied filmmaking and directing at the London Film School in the UK and Literature at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. His first short story collection Maldito Amor and first novel Mala Noche received prestigious national awards. Rosario Tijeras, published in 1999, has enjoyed spectacular commercial success in Colombia and marked the breakthrough of one of the most promising writers of new Latin American narrative. Paradise Travel (2002) solidly reaffirmed Jorge Franco’s reputation with the tale of a young Colombian couple who attempt to escape the widespread violence of their country of origin by fleeing to New York as illegal immigrants. Both have been translated in English. Franco’s novel El Mundo de Afuera won the Premio Alfaguara award in 2014. Shooting Down Heaven became a #1 bestselling title in its first week in bookstores. It was recently optioned for a TV adaptation.
