In Laura Restrepo's stunning novel, a feud between two Colombian drug families escalates into a bloody, high-stakes war that will leave no one in its path untouched. The Barragáns and the Monsalves are rival clans, each steeped in wealth and power, each subject only to laws of their own making. The similarities end there. While the Barragáns, headed by the brutal Nando, remain tied to the ancient traditions, the Monsalves grapple with whether or not to follow Mani, their charismatic and conflicted leader, into a modern age in which even fewer rules apply.  As both clans ponder the profits they might reap from an expanding global cocaine trade, Nando and Mani are faced with the consequences of their violent pasts--and forced, by their disillusioned women and the prices on their heads, to reckon with the possibility that nothing will be left once all their bullets have found their targets.
                        
Rife with sensual detail, this epic story of lust, betrayal, and revenge is as timeless as interfamily conflict and as immediate as today's news.

From acclaimed Colombian author Laura Restrepo comes a prize-winning novel inspired by a true crime that shattered a community and exposed the dark recesses of toxic masculinity and privilege. Immune to the consequences of immorality, five privileged young men in Bogotá bond over a shared code: worship drugs and drink, exploit women, and scorn the underclass. As males, they declare the right to freedom of pleasure. As friends, only disloyalty to each other is forbidden. When a little girl from the slums disappears, the limits of a perverse and sacred bond will be tested in ways none of them could have imagined. Hauntingly true, this daringly told work of fiction explores the tragic dynamic between genders, social classes, and victim and victimizer, and between five men whose intolerable transgressions will shake the conscience of a country.

La reportera de una revista de frivolidades es enviada por su jefe a cubrir la aparicion de un angel en una de las barriadas mas pobres de la ciudad. Emprende la tarea a reganadientes porque la tienen sin cuidado los asuntos religiosos y la aburre sobremanera un tema tan manido, y ni siquiera sospecha hasta que punto se va a ver involucrada en una brutal cadena de acontecimientos que escaparan a su control y a su racionalidad.

Quien es y de donde viene el supuesto angel, ese muchacho perplejo y de asombrosa belleza a quien la fe de los habitantes del barrio mantiene encerrado entre una cueva? Que lo une a esa reportera que de el se enamora, a la madre que lo busca en agonia, al sacerdote que intenta destruirlo, a la medica que pretende hospitalizarlo, a las mujeres que lo banan, lo alimentan y lo convierten en supremo objeto de veneracion?

Sin caer en el socorrido "realismo magico," Restrepo explora los abismos de la religiosidad popular y acompana los pasos de una mujer que se atreve a adentrarse en el luminoso y a la vez pavoroso territorio de lo sagrado.

Dulce Compania recibio los premios Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz y el Prix France Culture, otorgado por la critica literaria francesa.

"This barrio angel teaches us how to see behind the appearance of things and how to embrace reality with all the senses." --Isabel Allende

"Laura Restrepo breathes life into a singular amalgam of journalistic investigation and literary creation. Her fascination with popular culture and the play of her impeccable humor, of that biting but at the same time tender irony . . . infuses them with unmistakable reading pleasures."  --Gabriel García Márquez

Winner of Mexico's Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, and France's Prix France Culture, The Angel of Galilea introduces a refreshing new voice in Latin American literature to the English speaking audience.

Mona is a jaded reporter for a Colombian tabloid sent on assignment to investigate an angel sighting in one of Bogotá's most devastated barrios, where she encounters a community torn apart by a passionate conflict over a beautiful man who walks the fine line between sanity and sainthood. For the people of Galilea, this mysterious and sensual "angel without a name" represents their hope amidst desperate circumstances; for Mona, he awakens her desire to love and gives her a reason to believe. When the barrio's priest leads a revolt against the fallen angel, Mona risks everything to protect him from the gang that threatens to destroy him.

"Restrepo is a writer to treasure."  --Alastair Reid

"Sharply resonant."  --The New York Times Book Review

"Surprising, wonderful, and, for me, deeply moving."
--Alvaro Mutis

Con su caracteristico talento, Laura Restrepo construye un brillante relato en el que se combinan sensualmente el realismo y la imaginacion, la radiografia social y el romance

A traves de una serie de entrevistas, la reportera que narra este relato da vida a un singular grupo de personajes: cazadores de fortuna, jefes guerrilleros, obreros de refineria, y prostitutas. Asi intenta descifrar la misteriosa e impulsiva vida de Sayonara, el personaje principal de "La novia oscura." Tal una exotica mariposa, enigmatica y arrogante, Sayonara trabaja bajo las luces de La Catunga, el burdel del pueblo. Cada mes, Sayonara embruja a los trabajadores de la Tropical Oil Company que bajan de las montanas en busca de un poco de dicha terrenal.

Pero estos no son los unicos en sucumbir a los encantos de Sayonara... Su belleza atrae como una llama a una mezcla de personajes que van desde Sacramento, su amigo de la infancia, decidido a rescatarla del pecado, hasta el misterioso Payanes... Esta es la historia de Sayonara, la novia oscura, y revela un universo personal y politico que quedara para siempre marcado por su paso.

Once a month, the refinery workers of the Tropical Oil Company descend upon Tora, a city in the Colombian forest. They journey down from the mountains searching for earthly bliss and hoping to encounter Sayonara, the legendary Indian prostitute who rules their squalid paradise like a queen. Beautiful, exotic, and mysterious, Sayonara, the undisputed barrio angel, captivates whoever crosses her path. Then, one day, she violates the unwritten rules of her profession and falls in love with a man she can never have. Sayonara's unrequited passion has tragic consequences not only for her, but for all those whose lives ultimately depend on the Tropical Oil Company.

A slyly humorous yet poignant love story, The Dark Bride lovingly recreates the lusty, heartrending world of Colombian prostitutes and the men of the oil fields who are entranced by them. Full of wit and intelligence, tragedy and compassion, The Dark Bride is luminous and unforgettable.