Indie Press Reading Group

The Indie Press Reading Group series aims to highlight authors from small presses and independent publishers and share our love for indie books. We'll gather every month to discuss works of fiction, essays and poetry from renowned UK indie presses. In the third group, we'll discuss the new translation of a Latin American classic The Vortex by José Eustasio Rivera.

This book follows the young poet Arturo Cova and his lover, Alicia, as they elope from Bogota and embark on an adventure through Colombia's varied and magical landscapes. When Alicia-pregnant, jealous, and more than a little fed up-disappears, it's up to Arturo, and his unstoppable ego, to follow and win her back. From the cattle ranches of the llanos to the dense jungle of the rainforest, accompanied by hucksters, cowboys, desperate souls, and a terrifying tide of ants, Arturo pursues his bride-to-be, and becomes an inadvertent witness to the appalling conditions suffered by workers forced or tricked into tapping rubber trees.

Inventive, funny, and wildly prescient about the human and environmental costs of extractive systems, The Vortex is both a denunciation of the horrific human-rights abuses that took place during the Amazonian rubber boom, and one of most enduring renderings of the natural environment in Latin American literature. 100 years after its publication, it remains full of verve, and ready to inspire and delight a new generation of readers and writers.

"The Vortex is the most influential Colombian novel before Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One hundred years on, its themes - neo-slavery, human trafficking, violence against women, indigenous rights, Amazon deforestation - remain timely" -The Times Literary Supplement

"Pioneering eco-literature... Rivera's vivid, poetic prose transforms the jungle into a living being." -The Economist