The Anthill by Julianne Pachico
Julianne Pachico’s second novel is a vivid portrait of a woman searching for identity in present-day Medellin.
THE PREMISE: The daughter of a Colombian mother and British father, 28-year-old Carolina returns to Medellin 20 years after she was sent to the UK when her mother died unexpectedly. Now that Colombia is safe after decades of violence, Carolina looks forward to reuniting with her childhood friend Mattias and to experiencing her hometown with fresh eyes. But as she learns upon landing in the mountainous city, neither Matty nor Medellin are as healed as she expected.
THE SETTING: Carolina finds a Medellin in transition. There is now peace between the paramilitary and guerillas, and the city is becoming a lure for writers, ex-pats, and voluntourists. But it is still haunted by poverty and memories of violence, a place where corruption is still rampant and people remain suspicious. As Mattias tells Carolina, “you won’t be able to recognize who was once a guerrilla or who was once a paramilitary.”
Much of the story takes place at the Anthill, the afterschool program for low-income children where Mattias works and Carolina decides to volunteer. Here too, she struggles to fit in, seeing herself as above the less educated local woman working there, but at the same time, as more authentic than the other volunteers whose presence in Medellin seems performative. Even Matty seems to resent her for leaving in the first place.
Medellin’s still-tenuous identity parallels Carolina’s own lifelong struggle to know where she belongs and who she is. After so long away, she wonders if she can even call herself Colombian anymore.
IN THE END: By exploring identity and personal and national loss, Pachino shows the power of personal journeys of discovery and how travel can be “a search for self rather than experiences.”
This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org. This means if you make a purchase from our link, Undomesticated will receive a small commission to help us fund more stories. We do not accept compensation for reviews. All recommendations and opinions are our own.
