Patricia Engel has published two other books, the short story collection Vida and the novel It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris. Even though I haven’t read either of those books, I felt that I needed to read her new novel, The Veins of the Ocean. Not only because the reviews were intriguing (and very positive) but also because I don’t remember ever reading anything by a Colombian American novelist. The Veins of the Ocean is the story of Reina Castillo. When we first meet Reina […]
“He was just ruthless.”
Most of what I know about Pablo Escobar I learned from the ESPN documentary series 30 for 30. The documentary, called The Two Escobars, is about the murder of Colombian soccer player Andrés Escobar after scoring an own goal that led to the elimination of Colombia during the 1994 World Cup. Pablo Escobar was killed a few months prior and the directors of the documentary believed that due to Pablo’s fanaticism towards soccer, his influence may have prevented Andrés death. It made Pablo seem bizarrely […]

