Marcela Villegas

The Compassion of Strangers Marcela Villegas

Amalia is a forensic anthropologist, tasked with identifying victims of Colombia's internal conflict. She is also the daughter of a woman with Alzheimer's, whom she attempts to care for while negotiating several fraught relationships.
Based on extensive research, including the author's own experience of caring for her mother, The Compassion of Strangers offers an original account of violence in Colombia and of the workings of memory. This gripping narrative, which poetically explores individual and collective suffering, makes all too apparent what remains when only remains are left.

[A]n intense prose poem whose characters bear witness to tragedies that dive deep into the human condition.
-Gustavo Colorado Grisales, La cola de rata

[T]old with intelligence and humanity ... I think sobriety is the great virtue of this story.
-Luis Fernando Afanador, Revista Semana