The Crime of the Century
(El crimen del siglo)

A classic of Colombian literature based on real events, El crimen del siglo is the first installment of the Trilogía del 9 de abril, which continues with El incendio de abril. It depicts the incidents that in 1948 led Juan Roa Sierra to murder the liberal candidate for the 1950 presidential elections, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, in Bogota. The novel questions what would motivate a 26-year-old man to completely change the country’s future and destroy its hopes, taking the reader step by step up to that nightmarish day that became a milestone in Colombia’s history. Colombian director Andrés Baiz based his film Roa on this book and it was a finalist for the 2010 La Mar de Letras Prize (Barcelona).