THE IMMORTAL BOY

Two sets of young people living in dire circumstances are trying their best to survive in Colombia.

Thirteen-year-old Hector and his siblings, Maria, Robert, David, and Manuela, are living in Bogotá on the brink of starvation since their father left and their mother died. As the oldest, Hector assumes the responsibility of finding work to feed his siblings. Determined to stay true to their father’s wish that they stay together, they refuse to seek help from social services out of fear of separation. In a parallel story, Nina, the daughter of political prisoners, is a new arrival at an orphanage. As she awaits her mother’s release, she is fixated on befriending the Immortal Boy, a loner who, rumor has it, protects bullied children. Told through chapters that switch between third-person narration focusing on Hector’s family and Nina’s first-person voice, the stories initially do not seem to intersect. Their eventual connection is suspenseful, unexpected, and tragic, underscoring the visceral loneliness that permeates both stories. Fans of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs may appreciate the eerie tone. This work could serve as a springboard for discussions about poverty and the difficult choices one must make in desperate situations. This English-language debut by award-winning Colombian author Montaña Ibáñez appears in a bilingual edition, presented flip-book style in both English and Spanish.

Intense, surreal, and mysterious.