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Casa de furia
"La sala se remeció del estruendo, pero no eran carcajadas felices sino funéreas, y, sin embargo, compaginaban muy bien con la gran fiesta que se oía desde el jardín".
Es abril de 1970 y la imponente casa de los Caicedo, ubicada en uno de los barrios más distinguidos de Bogotá, se prepara para celebrar el aniversario de bodas de los patriarcas de la Alma Santacruz y el magistrado Nacho Caicedo. El día y los festejos avanzan, al mismo tiempo que un desfile de variados personajes -que entran y salen del lugar- entrelazan sus historias y sellan sus destinos en la vida, el placer y la muerte.
Con ritmo vertiginoso y prosa explosiva, Evelio Rosero regresa con una rocambolesca tragicomedia que destila dosis de humor negro y de drama, y hace un retrato lapidario de una sociedad acostumbrada a seguir de fiesta al ritmo de sus pasiones mientras se desata la catástrofe. Casa de furia es una historia que remueve cimientos y sumerge al lector en preguntas fundamentales sobre el país, la condición humana y el origen de nuestra violencia.
La crítica ha dicho...
"Importante y poderoso autor".The Times
"Suave en su voz y feroz en su impacto".The Independent
Es abril de 1970 y la imponente casa de los Caicedo, ubicada en uno de los barrios más distinguidos de Bogotá, se prepara para celebrar el aniversario de bodas de los patriarcas de la Alma Santacruz y el magistrado Nacho Caicedo. El día y los festejos avanzan, al mismo tiempo que un desfile de variados personajes -que entran y salen del lugar- entrelazan sus historias y sellan sus destinos en la vida, el placer y la muerte.
Con ritmo vertiginoso y prosa explosiva, Evelio Rosero regresa con una rocambolesca tragicomedia que destila dosis de humor negro y de drama, y hace un retrato lapidario de una sociedad acostumbrada a seguir de fiesta al ritmo de sus pasiones mientras se desata la catástrofe. Casa de furia es una historia que remueve cimientos y sumerge al lector en preguntas fundamentales sobre el país, la condición humana y el origen de nuestra violencia.
La crítica ha dicho...
"Importante y poderoso autor".The Times
"Suave en su voz y feroz en su impacto".The Independent
364 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2021
52 people are currently reading
1543 people want to read
About the author
Evelio Rosero
44 books141 followersEvelio Rosero Diago was born in Bogotá, Colombia, on March 20, 1958. He is a Colombian writer and journalist, who reached international acclaim after winning in 2006 the prestigious Tusquets Prize.
Evelio Rosero studied primary school in Colombia’s southern city of Pasto, and high school in Bogotá, where he later attended Universidad Externado de Colombia obtaining a degree in Journalism. When he was 21, he won Colombia’s Premio Nacional de Cuento del Quindío 1979 (National Short Story Award of Quindío), for his piece Ausentes (The Departed) that was published by Instituto Colombiano de Cultura in the book 17 Cuentos colombianos (17 Colombian Short Stories). In 1982 he was awarded with the Premio Iberoamericano de Libro de Cuentos Netzahualcóyotl, in Mexico City for his earlier stories, and that same year, a novella under the title Papá es santo y sabio (Dad is holy and wise) won Spain’s Premio Internacional de Novela Breve Valencia. After these early successess, Rosero fled to Europe and lived first in Paris and later in Barcelona.
His first novel in 1984 was Mateo Solo (Mateo Alone), which began his trilogy known as Primera Vez (First Time). Mateo Solo is a story about a child confined in his own home. Mateo knows about the outside world for what he sees through the windows. It is a novel of dazzling confinement, where sight is the main character: his sister, his aunt, his nanny all play their own game while allowing Mateo to keep his hope for identity in plotting his own escape.
With his second book in 1986, Juliana los mira (Juliana is watching), Evelio Rosero was translated into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and German to great acclaim. Once again, the visual experience of a child, this time a girl, builds the world of grownups and family, unveiling all the brutality and meanness of adults as seen with her ingenuousness. Juliana’s world is her own house and family. As Juliana watches her parents and relatives, she builds them. Her sight alters objects as she contemplates them. This was the first book where Rosero involved other themes from Colombia’s tragical reality such as kidnapping, presented here as a permanent threat that in the end justifies Juliana’s own confinement.
In 1988, El Incendiado (The Burning Man) was published. With this book, Rosero obtained a Proartes bachelor in Colombia and won in 1992 the II Premio Pedro Gómez Valderrama for the most outstanding book written between 1988 and 1992. The novel tells the stories of a group of teenagers from a famous school in Bogotá, Colegio Agustiniano Norte, denouncing the education taught by the priest headmasters as “fool, arcaic, troglodite and morbid”.
To date, he has written nine novels, beginning with Señor que no conoce luna in 1992 and Cuchilla in 2000 which won a Norma-Fundalectura prize. Plutón (Pluto) published also in 2000, Los almuerzos (The lunches) in 2001, Juega el amor in 2002 and Los Ejércitos, which won in 2006 the prestigious 2nd Premio Tusquets Editores de Novela and also won in 2009 the prestigious Independent Foreign Fiction Prize organized by the British newspaper The Independent.
Evelio Rosero currently lives in Bogotá. In 2006 he won Colombia’s Premio Nacional de Literatura (National Literature Prize) awarded in recognition of a life in letters by the Ministry of Culture. His work has been translated into a dozen European languages.
Evelio Rosero studied primary school in Colombia’s southern city of Pasto, and high school in Bogotá, where he later attended Universidad Externado de Colombia obtaining a degree in Journalism. When he was 21, he won Colombia’s Premio Nacional de Cuento del Quindío 1979 (National Short Story Award of Quindío), for his piece Ausentes (The Departed) that was published by Instituto Colombiano de Cultura in the book 17 Cuentos colombianos (17 Colombian Short Stories). In 1982 he was awarded with the Premio Iberoamericano de Libro de Cuentos Netzahualcóyotl, in Mexico City for his earlier stories, and that same year, a novella under the title Papá es santo y sabio (Dad is holy and wise) won Spain’s Premio Internacional de Novela Breve Valencia. After these early successess, Rosero fled to Europe and lived first in Paris and later in Barcelona.
His first novel in 1984 was Mateo Solo (Mateo Alone), which began his trilogy known as Primera Vez (First Time). Mateo Solo is a story about a child confined in his own home. Mateo knows about the outside world for what he sees through the windows. It is a novel of dazzling confinement, where sight is the main character: his sister, his aunt, his nanny all play their own game while allowing Mateo to keep his hope for identity in plotting his own escape.
With his second book in 1986, Juliana los mira (Juliana is watching), Evelio Rosero was translated into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and German to great acclaim. Once again, the visual experience of a child, this time a girl, builds the world of grownups and family, unveiling all the brutality and meanness of adults as seen with her ingenuousness. Juliana’s world is her own house and family. As Juliana watches her parents and relatives, she builds them. Her sight alters objects as she contemplates them. This was the first book where Rosero involved other themes from Colombia’s tragical reality such as kidnapping, presented here as a permanent threat that in the end justifies Juliana’s own confinement.
In 1988, El Incendiado (The Burning Man) was published. With this book, Rosero obtained a Proartes bachelor in Colombia and won in 1992 the II Premio Pedro Gómez Valderrama for the most outstanding book written between 1988 and 1992. The novel tells the stories of a group of teenagers from a famous school in Bogotá, Colegio Agustiniano Norte, denouncing the education taught by the priest headmasters as “fool, arcaic, troglodite and morbid”.
To date, he has written nine novels, beginning with Señor que no conoce luna in 1992 and Cuchilla in 2000 which won a Norma-Fundalectura prize. Plutón (Pluto) published also in 2000, Los almuerzos (The lunches) in 2001, Juega el amor in 2002 and Los Ejércitos, which won in 2006 the prestigious 2nd Premio Tusquets Editores de Novela and also won in 2009 the prestigious Independent Foreign Fiction Prize organized by the British newspaper The Independent.
Evelio Rosero currently lives in Bogotá. In 2006 he won Colombia’s Premio Nacional de Literatura (National Literature Prize) awarded in recognition of a life in letters by the Ministry of Culture. His work has been translated into a dozen European languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
January 16, 2025
What a banger. This is essentially a 360 page story of a dinner party and I LOVE a depiction of a dinner party (yes, The Office is my favorite), there’s room for so much tension and drama and things always go off the rails.
The party, supposedly arranged to celebrate the wedding anniversary of the magistrate and his wife, doesn’t take long before it descends into an all out bacchanal. Morality has taken a backseat for the night and nothing is off the table. Sexual encounters abound, some consensual, most not, and the first attempted murder happens before the sun has even set. There are endless characters—half of Bogotá seems to have been invited—and they’re all fascinating and despicable in their own way.
I loved this. If you’ve read Rosero’s WAY FAR AWAY, you know how evocative his simple sentences are, how vivid are the scenes that his words brings to life, how easy it is to picture every detail and action in your mind’s eye. The author, through this dinner party, expertly creates a microcosm of Colombian society in the 70’s, replete with violence, debauchery, and corruption. Just when you think he’s taken things far enough, when it seems this party can’t get any more out of hand, Rosero cranks it up a notch.
An epic, ruthless, brutal tragicomedy. Enthralling from start to finish. I would be surprised if this doesn’t end up as one of my favorites of the year.
The party, supposedly arranged to celebrate the wedding anniversary of the magistrate and his wife, doesn’t take long before it descends into an all out bacchanal. Morality has taken a backseat for the night and nothing is off the table. Sexual encounters abound, some consensual, most not, and the first attempted murder happens before the sun has even set. There are endless characters—half of Bogotá seems to have been invited—and they’re all fascinating and despicable in their own way.
I loved this. If you’ve read Rosero’s WAY FAR AWAY, you know how evocative his simple sentences are, how vivid are the scenes that his words brings to life, how easy it is to picture every detail and action in your mind’s eye. The author, through this dinner party, expertly creates a microcosm of Colombian society in the 70’s, replete with violence, debauchery, and corruption. Just when you think he’s taken things far enough, when it seems this party can’t get any more out of hand, Rosero cranks it up a notch.
An epic, ruthless, brutal tragicomedy. Enthralling from start to finish. I would be surprised if this doesn’t end up as one of my favorites of the year.
November 11, 2022
Un batiburrillo de personajes y estigmas (¿quizá excesivo?) con mil y una escenas teatreras del absurdo (¿quizá excesivas?), que el autor utiliza para hacernos llegar un mural representativo, disparatado y a la vez verosímil, de la sociedad colombiana, sus excesos y virtudes y desvirtudes. Si se soporta el shock personajero, puede llegar a agradar bastante.
September 22, 2021
Sin duda alguna el mejor libro colombiano del año y uno de los mejores que me he leído últimamente. La fiesta del aniversario de bodas de los Caicedo es una tragicomedia que retrata y resume lo que es el país . Y al final, la muerte, al igual que La Máscara de la Muerte Roja de Poe, es el invitado de honor. Librazo. Sin duda.
October 31, 2021
Un libro divertido y oscuro. He leído 3 novelas de Evelio Rosero y en todas revuelve las tripas y mantiene la atención. Es bizarro en su pluma pero a la vez profundo. Recomiendo esta lectura
April 5, 2025
4.5 definitely a whirlwind but very good!!
February 23, 2025
This is a wild ride indeed, though with a necessary steady build up.
Set over the course of a single cataclysmic evening in Bogota it begins with Nacho Caicedo, a supreme court magistrate, hosting an anniversary party along with his wife, Alma Santacruz. Present are many of the affluent of Bogotá, as well as their six daughters; all profess unrestrained loyalty to Nacho.
It’s not long into the evening until things begin to go awry; news breaks of teen daughter Italia’s pregnancy and Alma’s indigent brother, Jesús, turns up uninvited, whom Alma wants gone at any cost. Francia, another daughter, is distraught to learn her fiancé has upped and married someone else, while her sister Lisboa falls under the spell of a baritone butcher as old as her father.
The situations are tragic and farcical, and the chaos worsens when Italia runs off with her boyfriend and his family of chicken traders. Nacho sets out to find her, but is kidnapped by a disparate horde of mercenaries bent on savage revenge as a cluster of earthquakes shake Bogotá.
Crazy? It certainly is, and the insanity is only beginning. The mayhem clearly serves as a piercing metaphor for Colombia’s turbulent history.
I often say that a novel like this is difficult to finish and live up to what has gone before, but here Rosero excels. The ‘finale’, as he calls the last part of the book himself, is devastating, shocking and hilarious all at the same time.
This is outstanding entertainment.
Set over the course of a single cataclysmic evening in Bogota it begins with Nacho Caicedo, a supreme court magistrate, hosting an anniversary party along with his wife, Alma Santacruz. Present are many of the affluent of Bogotá, as well as their six daughters; all profess unrestrained loyalty to Nacho.
It’s not long into the evening until things begin to go awry; news breaks of teen daughter Italia’s pregnancy and Alma’s indigent brother, Jesús, turns up uninvited, whom Alma wants gone at any cost. Francia, another daughter, is distraught to learn her fiancé has upped and married someone else, while her sister Lisboa falls under the spell of a baritone butcher as old as her father.
The situations are tragic and farcical, and the chaos worsens when Italia runs off with her boyfriend and his family of chicken traders. Nacho sets out to find her, but is kidnapped by a disparate horde of mercenaries bent on savage revenge as a cluster of earthquakes shake Bogotá.
Crazy? It certainly is, and the insanity is only beginning. The mayhem clearly serves as a piercing metaphor for Colombia’s turbulent history.
I often say that a novel like this is difficult to finish and live up to what has gone before, but here Rosero excels. The ‘finale’, as he calls the last part of the book himself, is devastating, shocking and hilarious all at the same time.
This is outstanding entertainment.
August 27, 2025
Never at any point did I know for sure what was going on
March 6, 2022
Todos hemos estado en una fiesta que se sale de control, todos hemos sentido la embriaguez que nos desconecta de la realidad, leer este historia es ser invitados a un bacanal que refleja los límites que el ser humano sobrepasa. La simbología con los animales me recordó a Rebelión en la granja de Orwell, aunque acá los animales no están humanizados sino que los comportamientos de los humanos son "animalizados".
Cada personaje está perfectamente construido y llega un punto en la lectura en que sentí que no quería parar para saber no qué sino cómo pasaba el desenlace que nos van profetizando desde el comienzo. Cada lector verá acá reflejado el país: "toda su vida hablaron de un país violento, toda su vida discutieron sobre si sería mejor llamarlo un país asesino, y ahora les correspondía padecer su país en carne propia, ahora lo veían cara a cara, ahora lo entendían: país de víctimas." Otros a sus propios familiares y las historias secretas que guarda cada familia.
Esta fiesta nos ofreció servido en bandeja todo una variedad de abusos y pecados humanos... sería además un excelente guión para una película de Tarantino de esas que nos salpica sangre en la cara la pantalla.
Nota al pie1: Alguien me dijo que Evelio Rosero podría ser otro García Marquéz, no sé si los autores se sentirían a gusto con las comparaciones, pero este bacanal bien podría entrar en un capítulo de 100 años de soledad. Quizás por esa razón, Rosero hace un guiño al ganador del Nobel y menciona su novela, cuando Uriela dice que leer la carta que su padre le oculta sobre el embarazo de su hermana sería mejor que leer cien años de soledad.
Nota al pie2: Me han hablado mucho de Toño Ciruelo de este mismo autor. Seguiré con ese espero que supere en expectativas a este.
Cada personaje está perfectamente construido y llega un punto en la lectura en que sentí que no quería parar para saber no qué sino cómo pasaba el desenlace que nos van profetizando desde el comienzo. Cada lector verá acá reflejado el país: "toda su vida hablaron de un país violento, toda su vida discutieron sobre si sería mejor llamarlo un país asesino, y ahora les correspondía padecer su país en carne propia, ahora lo veían cara a cara, ahora lo entendían: país de víctimas." Otros a sus propios familiares y las historias secretas que guarda cada familia.
Esta fiesta nos ofreció servido en bandeja todo una variedad de abusos y pecados humanos... sería además un excelente guión para una película de Tarantino de esas que nos salpica sangre en la cara la pantalla.
Nota al pie1: Alguien me dijo que Evelio Rosero podría ser otro García Marquéz, no sé si los autores se sentirían a gusto con las comparaciones, pero este bacanal bien podría entrar en un capítulo de 100 años de soledad. Quizás por esa razón, Rosero hace un guiño al ganador del Nobel y menciona su novela, cuando Uriela dice que leer la carta que su padre le oculta sobre el embarazo de su hermana sería mejor que leer cien años de soledad.
Nota al pie2: Me han hablado mucho de Toño Ciruelo de este mismo autor. Seguiré con ese espero que supere en expectativas a este.
July 28, 2022
Colombia en una familia, en una fiesta, en un microuniverso violento que se dirige a un destino fatal. En las páginas de esta novela, Rosero condensa los problemas estructurales de la sociedad colombiana a través de diversos personajes ambiguos que representan males como el arribismo, el clasismo, el machismo, la violencia de género, la doble moral, la pedofilia, la corrupción, la burocracia, entre muchas otras. La casa se constituirá en la obra como un mundo en sí misma, en el cual los diferentes espacios son escenarios que muestran y ocultan dinámicas de ostentación y exclusión.
Rosero tiene habilidad para perfilar personajes de los cuales no podemos confiar, pese a la fachada que se esmeran en crear. En medio de este enorme repertorio nos va envolviendo en el torbellino de una fiesta donde designios trágicos van emergiendo preparándonos para un final demente.
A pesar de estas fortalezas, la novela cae en muchos lugares comunes, se extiende innecesariamente en algunos pasajes y al final, no me quedó claro a qué punto quería llegar el autor, pese a que pareciera que existe una intención patente por llevarnos hacia una reflexión sobre la sociedad colombiana. Pero, el final intenso nos queda debiendo un cierre adecuado que supere la espectacularidad de las escenas que se van dando de manera frenética. Puede que en la acción nos ofrezca un climax narrativo, las ideas que circulan desde la primera página no cuajan, no se materializan en mi mente, dejando en mí la sensación de haber leído un texto sugerente pero superficial.
Rosero tiene habilidad para perfilar personajes de los cuales no podemos confiar, pese a la fachada que se esmeran en crear. En medio de este enorme repertorio nos va envolviendo en el torbellino de una fiesta donde designios trágicos van emergiendo preparándonos para un final demente.
A pesar de estas fortalezas, la novela cae en muchos lugares comunes, se extiende innecesariamente en algunos pasajes y al final, no me quedó claro a qué punto quería llegar el autor, pese a que pareciera que existe una intención patente por llevarnos hacia una reflexión sobre la sociedad colombiana. Pero, el final intenso nos queda debiendo un cierre adecuado que supere la espectacularidad de las escenas que se van dando de manera frenética. Puede que en la acción nos ofrezca un climax narrativo, las ideas que circulan desde la primera página no cuajan, no se materializan en mi mente, dejando en mí la sensación de haber leído un texto sugerente pero superficial.
March 29, 2025
Easy to start, hard to finish, but consuming throughout
September 22, 2025
In House of Fury by Evelio Rosero (translated by Victor Meadowcroft), Nacho Caicedo, a Supreme Court magistrate, is hosting an anniversary party with his wife, Alma Santacruz, on an April day in 1970. This party will be attended by their daughters, extended family, and others whom Caicedo has saved from prison over the years.
What a perfect title. Rosero’s sentences do seem like fury, even when darkly funny. Sentences run on. Breathless, merciless, often crude, full of deliberate ugliness, sometimes lyricism and ugliness meeting. Beauty is hard to find amidst what seems like a mass disease of blood, insanity, and violence. Often hidden by the sparkling riches of the elite, waiting under all the baroque beauty of their houses and ornaments. Sometimes very obvious. The book starts off as a dark comedy, the darkness getting amplified even more, with the ending more akin to straight-up horror.
The party becomes a metaphor for Colombia’s brutal history. The sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the crimes of the rich and powerful, the intense misogyny, and the rampant rape culture within these elite families which are accepted and acceptable. Sickening privilege, while outside they are protected by a corrupt regime and the ordinary people are reduced to surviving. A dead country full of rot, so much so that you can smell the rot, taste it, feel it in your palms, until it disgusts you. Human beings as disposable and usable bodies to other humans.
A society in microcosm, a metaphor for the modern form of evil, for it is the past and the present both. And the horror and sadness of realising that the author might as well be talking about my own country as it is right now. House of Fury is as brilliant as it is frightening.
What a perfect title. Rosero’s sentences do seem like fury, even when darkly funny. Sentences run on. Breathless, merciless, often crude, full of deliberate ugliness, sometimes lyricism and ugliness meeting. Beauty is hard to find amidst what seems like a mass disease of blood, insanity, and violence. Often hidden by the sparkling riches of the elite, waiting under all the baroque beauty of their houses and ornaments. Sometimes very obvious. The book starts off as a dark comedy, the darkness getting amplified even more, with the ending more akin to straight-up horror.
The party becomes a metaphor for Colombia’s brutal history. The sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the crimes of the rich and powerful, the intense misogyny, and the rampant rape culture within these elite families which are accepted and acceptable. Sickening privilege, while outside they are protected by a corrupt regime and the ordinary people are reduced to surviving. A dead country full of rot, so much so that you can smell the rot, taste it, feel it in your palms, until it disgusts you. Human beings as disposable and usable bodies to other humans.
A society in microcosm, a metaphor for the modern form of evil, for it is the past and the present both. And the horror and sadness of realising that the author might as well be talking about my own country as it is right now. House of Fury is as brilliant as it is frightening.
February 22, 2025
“Please!” interjected the monsignor, “I’m begging you in the name of God: this is not how you deliver news of a death, this is not how you speak of the dead! Death is something that demands respect, reflection. For the believers among us, death is the opening of a door that will lead us to God. For the nonbelievers, it’s the same. All men open that door, whether they wish to or not. Deaths that occur arbitrarily, sudden deaths, unforeseen deaths, peaceful deaths, those due to illness, old age, all these deaths are deserving of our respect. There’s no need to comment on them more than once, no need to poke fun. Because “how will we die?,” this is the question, this is what it is all about, this is why men suffer from the moment they are born, from the smallest to the greatest, may God have mercy, may God help us face that transition, may He grant that, at the final moment, someone is with us, to give us their hand. But if we are alone, if we have been left alone, we will not despair: God is waiting.”
Evelio Rosero's House of Fury is a slow but gradual descent into a maelstrom of impending doom where debauchery, unrest and murder find commonplace usage. The events in this novel take place over the course of an evening party- Friday, April 10, 1970- in a large Bogota mansion on the occasion of a big family celebration of the magistrate of the city. While starting out seemingly as a commonplace and mundane sequence of events, the disturbance reeking underneath is all too apparent after one has coursed through the first one-third of the novel. It started with the disturbing announcement of an undesired pregnancy by one of their teenage daughters and the unwanted arrival of the prodigal brother of the magistrate's wife. As time goes by the evening begins to be populated with guests and musicians from all levels of Bogota society. To top it off all and to create a living nightmare out of a colorful evening two earthquakes strike to rumble through the shimmering audience that had turned out for the party (the first quake descending upon them immediately following the above speech by one of the esteemed guests on death and the dead). All hell breaks loose as the guests descend into debauchery and depravity (it is as if 'sodom and gomorrah' had descended upon the evening) and the magistrate is kidnapped by a ragtag milita bent on revenge. The last rites seem to be complete when this group of murderers and outcasts invade the party bringing home the only aspect of humanity that seemed to be latent till then- the smell of blood and the shadow of death.
Death in all its colours is the sole denouement that presides over that vast spectre of the mansion that, hours ago, was thronged by the colourful aura of people and music- of life and celebration in its motleyest hues. Blood, death, retribution- they seem to preside over and become the omniscient narrators of a society that veers from celebration of their munificent factions towards a commonplace mob sinking into depravity and murder.
She was with the dead, in a place where it wasn’t nighttime but wasn’t daytime either, a place where everything just seemed. Then one of the dead—her father?—placed a hand of air on her shoulder: “Goodbye,” he said. Her mother was with him. They were linking arms like a couple of kids. Her mother said: “There’s something we need to go wait for.” Suddenly, the air split open and the dead began entering another place, another space: they were disappearing. Uriela was left alone, by herself. She saw herself in the half glow of dawn. I’m alive, she said, believing she had won, that she was returning to herself, and yet she had her arms raised, feeling pour down over her a rain of eyes and ears, of arms and legs, of screams and protestations, these were physical laments, firm, but elongated, infinitely long, this was the third stomp in the depths, this was the final call at the theater, this was the beginning of her tragedy.
.
Evelio Rosero's House of Fury is a slow but gradual descent into a maelstrom of impending doom where debauchery, unrest and murder find commonplace usage. The events in this novel take place over the course of an evening party- Friday, April 10, 1970- in a large Bogota mansion on the occasion of a big family celebration of the magistrate of the city. While starting out seemingly as a commonplace and mundane sequence of events, the disturbance reeking underneath is all too apparent after one has coursed through the first one-third of the novel. It started with the disturbing announcement of an undesired pregnancy by one of their teenage daughters and the unwanted arrival of the prodigal brother of the magistrate's wife. As time goes by the evening begins to be populated with guests and musicians from all levels of Bogota society. To top it off all and to create a living nightmare out of a colorful evening two earthquakes strike to rumble through the shimmering audience that had turned out for the party (the first quake descending upon them immediately following the above speech by one of the esteemed guests on death and the dead). All hell breaks loose as the guests descend into debauchery and depravity (it is as if 'sodom and gomorrah' had descended upon the evening) and the magistrate is kidnapped by a ragtag milita bent on revenge. The last rites seem to be complete when this group of murderers and outcasts invade the party bringing home the only aspect of humanity that seemed to be latent till then- the smell of blood and the shadow of death.
Death in all its colours is the sole denouement that presides over that vast spectre of the mansion that, hours ago, was thronged by the colourful aura of people and music- of life and celebration in its motleyest hues. Blood, death, retribution- they seem to preside over and become the omniscient narrators of a society that veers from celebration of their munificent factions towards a commonplace mob sinking into depravity and murder.
She was with the dead, in a place where it wasn’t nighttime but wasn’t daytime either, a place where everything just seemed. Then one of the dead—her father?—placed a hand of air on her shoulder: “Goodbye,” he said. Her mother was with him. They were linking arms like a couple of kids. Her mother said: “There’s something we need to go wait for.” Suddenly, the air split open and the dead began entering another place, another space: they were disappearing. Uriela was left alone, by herself. She saw herself in the half glow of dawn. I’m alive, she said, believing she had won, that she was returning to herself, and yet she had her arms raised, feeling pour down over her a rain of eyes and ears, of arms and legs, of screams and protestations, these were physical laments, firm, but elongated, infinitely long, this was the third stomp in the depths, this was the final call at the theater, this was the beginning of her tragedy.
.
May 18, 2025
4.5 this was INCREDIBLE im so mad i had to take a three week break from it in the middle becuase i got sick and if i hadn’t the flow would’ve been even better than it already was but this story was so ridiculously viscous, violent and absurd it tipped into a complete dark comedy. and the descent into madness in the last 10 pages was GOLD!
“no one knows when the crowd first became aware of their approaching destiny, too late, they noticed fate hovering over them.”
“no one knows when the crowd first became aware of their approaching destiny, too late, they noticed fate hovering over them.”
June 12, 2025
Pure chaos!! Taking place over the course of 24 hours, this tells the story of a wealthy family throwing a lavish anniversary party, and all the complicated, ridiculous, immoral guests in attendance. This book has an absolutely huge cast of characters, so much so that I struggled to keep up with who's who. That's where this book lost me personally, but I had fun with this, and wow that ending.
May 2, 2025
Surprisingly violent. All I know about Colombian history has come from 100 years of solitude so now we have added to that?
May 29, 2025
The most insane book I’ve ever read???? glitz, glam, and gore!!!
August 21, 2025
✨✨ enthrallling tbh ✨✨ smashed it in a day kind of vibe
April 9, 2025
The best part about House of Fury might be what it tried to say and hoped to reveal and confront. I could easily compare this sprawling family-and-friends drama to a soap opera I might’ve watched back home: a long night full of names, tangled family trees, and catastrophic fate born from class division in a city rotting with corruption.
Though its premise is exciting, the book started off just okay and ended... pretty badly. The narrator takes a wishy-washy stance, oddly positioning himself at the center of two colliding forces: the grotesque one-percenters and the poor, reaching for blood, money, and half-baked revenge. While there were attempts at nuance in some of the characters, I couldn't bring myself to feel sorrow for the story’s victims, nor did I enjoy the clichés slapped onto the final “assassins.”
Ultimately, I was left more nauseated than moved, especially by the repetitive, gratuitous violence—sexual or otherwise. Other authors have managed to evoke those themes with far more purpose. Here, it just felt lazy.
Though its premise is exciting, the book started off just okay and ended... pretty badly. The narrator takes a wishy-washy stance, oddly positioning himself at the center of two colliding forces: the grotesque one-percenters and the poor, reaching for blood, money, and half-baked revenge. While there were attempts at nuance in some of the characters, I couldn't bring myself to feel sorrow for the story’s victims, nor did I enjoy the clichés slapped onto the final “assassins.”
Ultimately, I was left more nauseated than moved, especially by the repetitive, gratuitous violence—sexual or otherwise. Other authors have managed to evoke those themes with far more purpose. Here, it just felt lazy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2025
it took me a second to get into this one because there are a million characters, most of them completely despicable. we start at the whirlwind party hosted at the caicedo's house, an upper crust family in bogotá, which attracts a cast of butchers, magicians, musicians, priests, and lawyers. what initially seems like a hammed up satire about the depravity of the upper classes soon begins to unravel as violence and tragedies unfold, hinting at a darker ending to the night. and while this could have been a story of comeuppance--of the upper class getting what it deserves--there's ultimately no glee in the way that the partygoers meet their fate. instead, HOUSE OF FURY paints a picture of a colombia that is neither a "violent country" nor a "murderous country," but instead: "a country of victims."
May 3, 2025
You know the beginning of the Godfather I when there’s just so much going on at the wedding? House of Fury is basically a 400 page version of those first scenes - all set during a 24 hour period in house in Bogota in the 70s. There are lots of characters and I thought the descriptions of their inner lives as well as interpersonal and social relationships were much more interesting than the direction the book ends up going in (no spoilers), which was more more horror-chaos than anything else. Kinda like the end of The Substance where you’re like what the actual fuck is going on here and was this really necessary?? I essentially could have done with the first 60% being the entirety of the book.
May 30, 2025
This book had so many strong moments, especially in the first half. I really felt that the second half dragged. I loved the drama and the complex relationships between these characters, but a lot of it felt like it didn’t end up mattering because most characters died near the end anyways.
My other major problem was that there were too many characters. There were multiple full pages just listing character names, often never to be mentioned again. This could have been a GREAT novella if it was trimmed down.
My other major problem was that there were too many characters. There were multiple full pages just listing character names, often never to be mentioned again. This could have been a GREAT novella if it was trimmed down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 18, 2025
Gorgeous translation with beautiful descriptions and cadence. Not sure I anticipated the violence or the twist ending, and honestly preferred the first part, but feel like it was reflective of Colombia in a way that I couldn’t quite understand. Very glad this is a book club book so I can discuss it!!
August 31, 2021
Una historia impresionante, que atrapa y se lleva hasta las vísceras del lector con la manera de describir las situaciones que ocurren en esa casa de furia, que bien puede ser el país en el que vivimos.
May 4, 2022
Una casa que es el reflejo de un país entero, acaso un continente. Una orquesta, mano invisible, cortina de humo que oculta todo, que tolera todo, que maquilla todo. Disfruté mucho la lectura de esta novela.
July 11, 2022
Confluencia distorsionada de emociones en la cresta de la prosperidad de una familia y su encuentro con un "pasado en presente" turbio y contundente. El magistrado Caicedo y sus capitales hijas se ven enredados en una trama muy particular, llena de incidencias y casualidades propias de la Colombia de los 70s.
El escenario principal de la novela es la fiesta de aniversario de bodas donde hace presencia la tragicomedia en diversos personajes cercanos a la familia Caicedos, envuelven al lector en la fascinación de un discurrir muy alegórico y particular.
Es un libro que a grandes rasgos es Colombia y sus atributos, entre ellos lo inverosimil, la fiesta y la muerte como personajes de la simbiosis de una realidad con rasgos ficcionales.
Calificación: 4,1/5
El escenario principal de la novela es la fiesta de aniversario de bodas donde hace presencia la tragicomedia en diversos personajes cercanos a la familia Caicedos, envuelven al lector en la fascinación de un discurrir muy alegórico y particular.
Es un libro que a grandes rasgos es Colombia y sus atributos, entre ellos lo inverosimil, la fiesta y la muerte como personajes de la simbiosis de una realidad con rasgos ficcionales.
Calificación: 4,1/5
December 18, 2025
Una historia que se siente caótica, y desordenada, muchos personajes, emociones, muchos eventos y conflictos en una sola casa.
Leer este libro es una experiencia emocional intensa pero desagradable, ya que expone temas violentos, abandono, silencio. Es un libro que incomoda, desde la impotencia, el caos, confusión, y en ese sentido está muy bien logrado, pero por lo mismo no pude disfrutarlo bien.
Leer este libro es una experiencia emocional intensa pero desagradable, ya que expone temas violentos, abandono, silencio. Es un libro que incomoda, desde la impotencia, el caos, confusión, y en ese sentido está muy bien logrado, pero por lo mismo no pude disfrutarlo bien.
May 12, 2024
“No reconocemos que estamos equivocados, no reconocemos que, dicho en puro colombiano, la cagamos: esa es la principal enfermedad del país.”
Read
June 8, 2025these violent delights have violent ends
August 12, 2025
Chaos!!!!! Well that was the most insane thing I’ve ever read. The whole book follows a single evening, an epic party with endless characters that was equally entertaining and truly sickening. Someone pls read this to debrief with me stat.
September 4, 2025
damn, this was so unexpectedly good
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