For us, imagination and storytelling is a life force. I loved hearing my grandmother's fantastical tales of life and people she knew in Colombia that she'd swear were true. My family is full of storytellers, artists, and highly creative people. How did you first learn about the legends you reference in the novel, and do you have a favorite? You sow the pages of Infinite Country with Andean myths, and they often appear as a point of comparison for dilemmas that the characters encounter in the real world. This is what I'm always exploring in my work, and how transdiaspora can amplify ancestral connections while diminishing those imposed by one's dominant surroundings. I soon realized that who I am does not need to fit into neat boxes and that my essence extends far beyond the parameters of geography and language. Many people feel an urge to define and to categorize in order to understand.

Very early in my life I was made to feel both excluded and embraced by the two countries and cultures that formed me, and there were others, still, who had no idea what to do with me. The idea of belonging or not belonging is so tied to the idea of country and borders.

Did this sense of liminality affect your writing? A Conversation with Patricia Engel about her novel Infinite Country.Īs a dual citizen of the United States and Colombia, the daughter of Colombian immigrants, and an award-winning author of the Latin America diaspora, you are intimately familiar with the in-betweenness of the lives you depict in Infinite Country.

Infinite country by patricia engel