Patricia Engel

Talia is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket to the United States are waiting for her. If she does make it to Bogotá, will she trade the facts of her father and life in Colombia for the distant vision of her...

A New York Times Notable Book, an NPR Best Debut of the Year, and a PEN/Hemingway finalist.
 
These linked stories follow Sabina as she navigates her shifting identity as a daughter of the Colombian diaspora, and struggles to find her place within and beyond the net of her strong, protective, but embattled family.
 
In “Lucho,” Sabina’s family—already “foreigners in a town of blancos”—is...

The author's first novel is a story about an American girl in Paris, who navigates the intoxicating and treacherous complexities of independence, friendship, and romance. Lita del Cielo, the daughter of two Colombian orphans who arrived in America with nothing and made a fortune with their Latin food empire, has been granted one year to pursue her studies in Paris before she must return to work in the family business. She moves into a gently crumbling...