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El río del tiempo #5
Entre fantasmas
"Me pasé la infancia y la juventud en misa o leyendo novelas, y tantas oí y leí que perdí la fe: en Dios, cosa que para los efectos de la literatura poco importa, y en el novelista de tercera persona que sí."
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION "I spent my childhood and my youth attending mass and reading novels. And I heard and read so many that I lost my faith in God, which doesn’t matter much where literature is concerned…
Today, I don’t step foot inside a church, not even as a tourist and you can’t get me to read a novel even if you threaten me with bodily harm. I stay with Blasco Ibáñez, Cronin, and Daphne Du Maurier. […]The only thing I believe in now is in those who humbly recognize themselves. Everything else is blah, blah, blah." ?Fernando Vallejo
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION "I spent my childhood and my youth attending mass and reading novels. And I heard and read so many that I lost my faith in God, which doesn’t matter much where literature is concerned…
Today, I don’t step foot inside a church, not even as a tourist and you can’t get me to read a novel even if you threaten me with bodily harm. I stay with Blasco Ibáñez, Cronin, and Daphne Du Maurier. […]The only thing I believe in now is in those who humbly recognize themselves. Everything else is blah, blah, blah." ?Fernando Vallejo
Paperback
First published August 1, 2005
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About the author
Fernando Vallejo
34 books350 followersFernando Vallejo Rendón (born 1942 in Medellín, Colombia) is a novelist, filmmaker and essayist, born in Colombia. He obtained Mexican nationality in 2007.
Vallejo was born and raised in Medellín, though he left his hometown early in life. He started studies in Philosophy at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá, but after one year he abandoned the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. Soon after he began new studies on biology at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, which he finished. Then he spent one year in Italy at the film academy Cinecittá, where he obtained basic notions on cinema.
Vallejo then returned to Colombia with the project of filmmaking. Yet after difficulties with the Colombian Government in producing and, after he produced it, in presenting his first film (it was censored), he decided to leave his country.[citation needed]
In Mexico he produced and distributed three films about the violence in Colombia. He also wrote an award-winning children's theater script, "El reino misterioso o Tomás y las abejas." He has been living in Mexico since 1971, where he not only produced his cinematographic pieces, but also the whole of his literary work. Despite time spent in other locales, mainly Europe and the United States, most of his novels take place in Colombia. Some of his themes are grammar, biology, philosophy, physics, violence, pederasty, adolescence, drugs, death and politics, mostly related to places such as Antioquia and Medellín; yet his main theme is his life. His books are written in first person, in an autobiographical style.
His best-known novel, La virgen de los sicarios, has been translated into English as Our Lady of the Assassins. It deals with his fictionalized return to Medellín, and his relationships with two teenagers caught in the local cycle of violence. The autobiographical/fiction La virgen de los sicarios was made into a full feature film in 2000 and released in the United States as Our Lady of the Assassins.
In 2003, Colombian filmmaker Luis Ospina made a feature-length documentary about him: "La desazón suprema: retrato incesante de Fernando Vallejo ("The Supreme Uneasiness: Incessant Portrait of Fernando Vallejo").
In April 2007, Vallejo obtained Mexican citizenship and published a letter in which he publicly renounced his Colombian nationality. The letter presents the reasons for his decision by mentioning several incidents during his career, among them the recent reelection of President Uribe, that eventually led him to this decision.[1]
Vallejo was born and raised in Medellín, though he left his hometown early in life. He started studies in Philosophy at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá, but after one year he abandoned the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. Soon after he began new studies on biology at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, which he finished. Then he spent one year in Italy at the film academy Cinecittá, where he obtained basic notions on cinema.
Vallejo then returned to Colombia with the project of filmmaking. Yet after difficulties with the Colombian Government in producing and, after he produced it, in presenting his first film (it was censored), he decided to leave his country.[citation needed]
In Mexico he produced and distributed three films about the violence in Colombia. He also wrote an award-winning children's theater script, "El reino misterioso o Tomás y las abejas." He has been living in Mexico since 1971, where he not only produced his cinematographic pieces, but also the whole of his literary work. Despite time spent in other locales, mainly Europe and the United States, most of his novels take place in Colombia. Some of his themes are grammar, biology, philosophy, physics, violence, pederasty, adolescence, drugs, death and politics, mostly related to places such as Antioquia and Medellín; yet his main theme is his life. His books are written in first person, in an autobiographical style.
His best-known novel, La virgen de los sicarios, has been translated into English as Our Lady of the Assassins. It deals with his fictionalized return to Medellín, and his relationships with two teenagers caught in the local cycle of violence. The autobiographical/fiction La virgen de los sicarios was made into a full feature film in 2000 and released in the United States as Our Lady of the Assassins.
In 2003, Colombian filmmaker Luis Ospina made a feature-length documentary about him: "La desazón suprema: retrato incesante de Fernando Vallejo ("The Supreme Uneasiness: Incessant Portrait of Fernando Vallejo").
In April 2007, Vallejo obtained Mexican citizenship and published a letter in which he publicly renounced his Colombian nationality. The letter presents the reasons for his decision by mentioning several incidents during his career, among them the recent reelection of President Uribe, that eventually led him to this decision.[1]
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 3, 2021
Las últimas 20 páginas me parecieron tan hermosas. El libro se trata de un relato de las personas que el conoció y que tiene historias por contar de ellas. No me conecte mucho la verdad con el libro pero sus últimas páginas donde comparte su felicidad de Niño y el viejo que volvió a Medellín me conectan mucho. Vallejo siempre será un disfrute para mi ♥️
October 3, 2013
Al lado de “Los días Azules”, éste es uno de los mejores textos de El Río del Tiempo. Ambos libros están ligados: Los días azules habla sobre la niñez y los días felices de aquella época; Entre Fantasmas tiene como tema central la vejez, la nostalgia y la inminencia de la muerte: la de los amigos, los familiares, la de Bruja la perra y la propia. El libro tiene la mísma sátira e ironía de los demás, pero es un libro hermoso por la nostalgia y por el sentido de la vida, la muerte y el tiempo que se descubre en él. Sin embargo, la clave para leer a Vallejo, y tal vez para leer a cualquier escritor, la da él mismo al señalar: a mi que no me juzguen por lo que digo sino por cómo lo digo. Y él dice las cosas con un estilo único
May 1, 2008
no pude... o, la verdad sea dicha, no quise. un horror, sucio y racista.
June 1, 2019
Tal vez el mejor libro del Río del Tiempo; una divertida obra en la cual toman fuerza personajes que hacen presencia permanente en la obra de Fernando. Divertida, atrevida, y como siempre mordaz en sus críticas a la sociedad, al mundo establecido, absolutamente a todo. Definitivamente, el tema que mejor atañe a Fernando es la muerte, su inseparable amiga/enemiga, sus mejores historias nacen de ella.
November 6, 2025
Me encantó el libro.
Es una crítica social sin censura, las cosas como son sin patriotismo empalagoso.
Decir las realidades de nuestra sociedad no nos hace apátridas, todo lo contrario, se hace desde el llamado a lo que tenemos que cambiar una autocrítica nunca es mala si lo que se quiere es rectificar.
Un libro sobre la vejez, lo inevitable, más bien lo natural.
lectura recomendada.
Es una crítica social sin censura, las cosas como son sin patriotismo empalagoso.
Decir las realidades de nuestra sociedad no nos hace apátridas, todo lo contrario, se hace desde el llamado a lo que tenemos que cambiar una autocrítica nunca es mala si lo que se quiere es rectificar.
Un libro sobre la vejez, lo inevitable, más bien lo natural.
lectura recomendada.
April 7, 2024
Señor Fernando Vallejos, no lo conozco en detalle pero bájese del púlpito moral desde el que escribe. Una literatura de baja monta que pontifica sobre una moral perdida de un pueblo al que desprecia
Want to read
July 22, 2016A better translation of the title is "Among Ghosts."
September 11, 2017
Una obra que deja entrever una critica a la literatura, la moral y los valores convencionales. Un recorrido nostálgico por las personas que marcaron la vista del autor y a quienes el autor recuerda entre melancolia e ironía. La mejor parte del libro en mi parecer, es el regreso a su tierra natal en donde se da cuenta finalemente que no está muerto en vida. La muerte al fin de cuentas lo ha dejado llegar a la vejez, que aunque duela en el recuerdo, está llena de memorias valiosas. Nos damos cuenta a quien dedica su libro tras su partida.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews