Novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Santiago Gamboa was born in Colombia in 1965. His American debut, published by Europa in 2012, was the novel Necropolis, winner of the Otra Orilla Literary Prize. He is also the author of Night Prayers (Europa, 2016) and Return to the Dark Valley (Europa 2018).
Colombia
Santiago Gamboa
All Santiago Gamboa's books
Latest reviews
- "A richly textured thriller about competing religious organizations in post-civil war Colombia."— The Washington Post, Nov 4 2021
- "An engrossing thriller set in a modern-day Colombia haunted by the legacy of decades of armed conflict....Gamboa has crafted an effective thriller that thrives on his empathetic imagination."— Shelf Awareness, Oct 19 2021
- “An absorbing—at times almost too absorbing—mystery by a notable Colombian author.”— Kirkus Reviews, Sep 29 2021
- “There may be no more ambitious, accomplished writer than Gamboa at work in international noir today. Gamboa brings a searching, penetrating style to the prose and unwinds a genuinely compelling and provocative story that interrogates the very nature of violence and truth.”— Crime Reads, Sep 10 2021
- "A story that urgently reveals inequality and violence that govern an entire country, The Night Will Be Long is a devastatingly humorous thriller that will appeal to fans of Roberto Bolaño and Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season.”— Fantastic Fiction, Aug 24 2021
- “A page turner that is fiercely contemporary and wickedly funny in its analysis of the forces tearing at the seams of the world.”— Miami Rail, Nov 28 2017
- “Enormously entertaining and thought provoking in equal measures, Gamboa’s novels are the kind of books that converts to his writing can’t help but recommend to others with an almost proselytising zeal.”— The Quietus, Oct 2 2017
- “Gamboa [...] pulls off a master class in writing akin to that of the most celebrated Latin American writers of our time.”— Los Angeles Review of Books, Sep 28 2017
- "Noir-inflected [and] sprawling...Return to the Dark Valley is packed with vibrant characters and gripping stories."— Huffington Post, Sep 1 2017
- “An unsettling and brilliant document of contemporary life; highly recommended.”— Library Journal (Starred Review), Sep 1 2017
- “If you want to better understand the 21st century, you'd better be reading Gamboa.”— Andy Greenwald, screenwriter and host of The Watch, Jul 5 2017
- “A complex, challenging story that speaks to the terror and dislocation of the age.”— Kirkus Reviews, Jul 4 2017
- “Bold, propulsive and generous, Gamboa's name should be mentioned alongside the most exciting Latin American writers ever published in English.”— Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore, Jun 30 2017
- NECROPOLIS is a strange and wonderful novel. Colombian author Santiago Gamboa sets the stage as he has an author, who is not named, invited to the International Congress of Biography and Memory. Gamboa puts into motion the cast of characters in a hotel in Jerusalem, just...— Dec 13 2012
- Lured by both the book’s title and an image of a hotel hallway, luxurious and empty, I entered the graveyard frame story of Santiago Gamboa’s newest novel, Necropolis. The Colombian author composes a polyphonic narrative from an unnamed author invited to the International...— Dec 11 2012
- Memory, meaning and mortality This ambitious literary work centers around a mysterious death at a conference in Jerusalem, but frequently embarks on side trips that reveal the lives of a porn star and a cult founder, among other lecturers at the event. With “Necropolis,”...— Nov 9 2012
