{"product_id":"the-armies-9781906694777b","title":"The Armies","description":"\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: bold;\"\u003eWINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a small town in the mountains of Colombia, Ismael, a retired teacher, spends his mornings gathering oranges in the sunshine and spying on his neighbour as she sunbathes naked in her garden.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReturning from a walk one morning he discovers that his wife has disappeared. Then more people go missing, and not-so-distant gunfire signals the approach of war. Most of the villagers make their escape, but Ismael cannot leave without his Otilia. He becomes an unwilling witness to the senseless civil war that sweeps through his country with a tragic inevitability.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eThe Armies\u003c\/span\u003e Rosero has created a hallucinatory, relentless, captivating narrative often as violent as the events it describes, told by an old man battered by a reality he no longer recognizes.","brand":"Quercus","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42824381694032,"sku":"9781906694777B","price":8.49,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9781906694777-l.jpg?v=1785896341","url":"https:\/\/bookoutlet.com\/en-ca\/products\/the-armies-9781906694777b","provider":"Book Outlet","version":"1.0","type":"link"}