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The Violence: My Family's Colombian War
Not yet published
Expected 14 Apr 26
A powerful chronicle of Colombia’s descent into decades of civil war through the lens of an intimate, multi-generational tale of upheaval and betrayal.
When presumed president-elect Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, champion of the working class and harbinger of a new era of progressive social change, is assassinated on the eve of Colombia’s 1948 presidential election, the capital is plunged into bloodshed. So begins a singularly brutal period of Colombia’s history known simply as la violencia—a bloody civil war that spawned decades of turmoil and splintered the country into ever-shifting factions.
The Violence is an intimate history of this conflict—told not from the political center of the war but from the mountainous finca that Adriana E. Ramírez’s family tended to for generations, and through the eyes of her formidable grandmother, Esther. With startling lyricism, Ramírez illuminates the specter of violence—from guerilla warfare to the brutalities found so often in romantic relationships to the spontaneous and senseless violence steeped into everyday Colombian life during this period—and the threat that it poses to a country, and a family, that is trying to stay whole. Gracefully braiding together macrohistory, family history, and personal narrative, Adriana E. Ramírez traces these parallel stories of upheaval in a sweeping portrait of a country and family in flux.
When presumed president-elect Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, champion of the working class and harbinger of a new era of progressive social change, is assassinated on the eve of Colombia’s 1948 presidential election, the capital is plunged into bloodshed. So begins a singularly brutal period of Colombia’s history known simply as la violencia—a bloody civil war that spawned decades of turmoil and splintered the country into ever-shifting factions.
The Violence is an intimate history of this conflict—told not from the political center of the war but from the mountainous finca that Adriana E. Ramírez’s family tended to for generations, and through the eyes of her formidable grandmother, Esther. With startling lyricism, Ramírez illuminates the specter of violence—from guerilla warfare to the brutalities found so often in romantic relationships to the spontaneous and senseless violence steeped into everyday Colombian life during this period—and the threat that it poses to a country, and a family, that is trying to stay whole. Gracefully braiding together macrohistory, family history, and personal narrative, Adriana E. Ramírez traces these parallel stories of upheaval in a sweeping portrait of a country and family in flux.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication April 14, 2026
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About the author
Adriana E. Ramírez
7 books18 followersAdriana E. Ramírez is an award-winning American writer of Mexican and Colombian origin, as well as a critic, columnist, and performance poet based in Pittsburgh.
She won the inaugural PEN/Fusion Emerging Writers Prize in 2015 for her novella-length work of nonfiction, Dead Boys (Little A, 2016). From 2016-2020 she served as Critic-at-Large for the Los Angeles Times Book Section. She is the recipient of the Pittsburgh Foundation’s 2019 Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award.
Ramírez has won local and national awards for her work as a columnist and book critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she the edits of InReview and serves as a member of the editorial board.
Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, ESPN’s The Undefeated (now Andscape), the Los Angeles Review of Books, Guernica, PENAmerica, and Literary Hub. She used to write 45-word book reviews for People Magazine.
She and novelist Angie Cruz founded Aster(ix) Journal, a literary journal giving voice to the censored and the marginalized.
Ramírez is the author of poetry collection The Swallows (Blue Sketch Press 2016) and co-editor of the anthology In the Shadow of the Mic (Bridge & Tunnel Books 2020). She was the co-host of the 2021-2022 City of Asylum/Aster(ix) Journal podcast, Charla Cultural.
Her debut full-length work of nonfiction, The Violence, is forthcoming from Scribner on April 14, 2026.
She won the inaugural PEN/Fusion Emerging Writers Prize in 2015 for her novella-length work of nonfiction, Dead Boys (Little A, 2016). From 2016-2020 she served as Critic-at-Large for the Los Angeles Times Book Section. She is the recipient of the Pittsburgh Foundation’s 2019 Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award.
Ramírez has won local and national awards for her work as a columnist and book critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she the edits of InReview and serves as a member of the editorial board.
Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, ESPN’s The Undefeated (now Andscape), the Los Angeles Review of Books, Guernica, PENAmerica, and Literary Hub. She used to write 45-word book reviews for People Magazine.
She and novelist Angie Cruz founded Aster(ix) Journal, a literary journal giving voice to the censored and the marginalized.
Ramírez is the author of poetry collection The Swallows (Blue Sketch Press 2016) and co-editor of the anthology In the Shadow of the Mic (Bridge & Tunnel Books 2020). She was the co-host of the 2021-2022 City of Asylum/Aster(ix) Journal podcast, Charla Cultural.
Her debut full-length work of nonfiction, The Violence, is forthcoming from Scribner on April 14, 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is a powerful, haunting memoir of a family experiencing the disruptions of civil war, drug cartels and US infringement into her family’s country, Columba. It’s also a gruesome read so be prepared for murders, rapes and other dark events.
The book begins in 1948 and ends in 2024. We see Columbia at the beginning of its civil war due to the assassination of the liberal Jorge Gaitán. The civil raged to around 1954. Esther Angarita Sarmiento, the author’s grandmother is 20 and her life changes immeasurably. Additionally we see how in this Catholic country, women sacrifice their personal identities for wife/motherhood. The book moves on the highlight the effect of American intrusion in Columbia during the Johnson Administration when it sold weapons to Columbia instead civil strife because of Communism all based on the fear of godlessness, as if Christianity shows a better way.
This is also a familial memoir. We see how the they strive to stay alive, fit in, secure their property during these tumultuous times. It must have been harrowing and exhausting. I was also struck by how the family itself had church records burnt in an attempt to erase their presence.
The author writes “Columbia is a land of many truths.” Her family’s story is one of these. Like all stories in life, endurance and resilience is at the heart-bed of survival. And indeed this family survived. Though this was an emotional read, I learned a lot about Columbia and its people and history. I am grateful for that.
I’d like to thank NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read this ARC
The book begins in 1948 and ends in 2024. We see Columbia at the beginning of its civil war due to the assassination of the liberal Jorge Gaitán. The civil raged to around 1954. Esther Angarita Sarmiento, the author’s grandmother is 20 and her life changes immeasurably. Additionally we see how in this Catholic country, women sacrifice their personal identities for wife/motherhood. The book moves on the highlight the effect of American intrusion in Columbia during the Johnson Administration when it sold weapons to Columbia instead civil strife because of Communism all based on the fear of godlessness, as if Christianity shows a better way.
This is also a familial memoir. We see how the they strive to stay alive, fit in, secure their property during these tumultuous times. It must have been harrowing and exhausting. I was also struck by how the family itself had church records burnt in an attempt to erase their presence.
The author writes “Columbia is a land of many truths.” Her family’s story is one of these. Like all stories in life, endurance and resilience is at the heart-bed of survival. And indeed this family survived. Though this was an emotional read, I learned a lot about Columbia and its people and history. I am grateful for that.
I’d like to thank NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read this ARC
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
THE VIOLENCE: MY FAMILY'S COLOMBIAN WAR, print - The Violence known as la violencia began with a political assassination in 1948. Ms. Ramirez explains the decades long civil war through the eyes of her grandmother as the senseless violence dominates the country. It is hard for me to give a review without turning it into a book report. Because of the intensity of the contents of the book, I had to stop reading and come back later. I'm not a wimp when it comes to reading this type of non-fiction but the author did an excellent job conveying the intensity of the emotions, the events, and personality of her grandmother. Source: Mark Galarrita of Simon & Schuster. Thank you, Mr. Galarrita. 5*
December 22, 2025
This is a difficult story to convey in an accessible way. It focuses on the author's grandmother and the many siblings and offspring that add to the story of a brutal civil war that never seems to end. I occasionally had to stop for a deep breath before continuing, but it was worth it.
Survival with the slimmest of margins for error powerfully told.
Survival with the slimmest of margins for error powerfully told.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews