Stray Bullets

Broek, Lily van den | Paperback / softback | 28-10-2022 | 9789493245624

Note: the book is written in English only. —

When armed troops invade their village, the Santos family is forced to flee. They try to escape from the violence unnoticed in the dead of night, leaving behind the life they so carefully built. Their travels take them across Colombia, but they quickly discover there is no place left in their country where they are completely safe. In their search for security, they only seem to find the opposite: from kidnappings to stray bullets. Will they ever be able to return to their home?

Balas Perdidas (Stray Bullets) tells a fictional story, but is largely based on and inspired by true stories of Colombian refugees who fled from the violence in their hometowns without leaving their country’s borders. Although the long-lasting armed conflict between the FARC and the government officially ended with a peace treaty in 2016, Colombia still has one of the highest numbers of internally displaced people in the world. The aftermath is still felt by the millions of Colombians who haven’t been able to return home to this day.

— As a sociologist and human geographer, Lily van den Broek (1996) has always delved into themes of inequality, discrimination and conflict. She originally wrote Balas Perdidas (Stray Bullets) as a Master’s thesis. She travelled to Colombia to collect stories for her work. With this novel, she combined her love for writing with her deep interest in Spanish and South-American language and culture.