Fruit of the Drunken Tree

Civil war, guerrillas, kidnappings, violence, outages in Columbia in the 1990s as seen through the eyes of 2 young girls of different standings. Chula, who is nine, lives in a gated community together with her sister and mother (and a generally absent father). Petrona, who is thirteen, lives in the slums and is her large family's only provider. When Petrona comes to work as a maid for Chula's family, the young girl is fascinated by her. A bond of secrets ensues that soon becomes dangerous.

Intertwined with their personal tragedies we follow along with Pablo Escobar's terror on Columbia, his flight and capture. Which was informative, what frightening times.

The book holds two coming-of-age stories, and starts out as decent storytelling, and then towards the end becomes quite haunting with its conclusions. Experiencing the causes and effects of trauma through Chula's eyes, without having the external explanatory perspective on it, was very touching. Sometimes the girl's thoughts and observations felt a bit too wise for her age, but it definitely made for good reading.