The Night Will Be Long by Santiago Gamboa, author of Night Prayers and Necropolis, is an engrossing thriller set in a modern-day Colombia haunted by the legacy of decades of armed conflict. The novel begins with a harrowing description of an ambush in rural Colombia that recalls the violent conflagrations common before the 2016 peace accord with FARC. Prosecutor Edilson Javier Jutsiñamuy, veteran reporter Julieta Lezama and her assistant Johana Triviño--a former FARC rebel--are drawn to the case not only because of the scale of the violence, but the unsettling thoroughness with which it has been covered up. What follows is a satisfying procedural as the trio's investigations, spanning Colombia and even French Guiana, gradually uncover the surprising motivations behind the violence.
The case soon takes an odd turn as early leads point to the involvement of evangelical Christian churches. Gamboa brings readers inside the church of one of the main suspects, the services "a cross between a rock concert, a popular mass, and a TV show." The heavily fortified church is led by a charismatic pastor who forges an unexpected connection with Julieta after sharing his personal story. Gamboa casts an unflattering light on evangelical churches, which Julieta sees as holding its undereducated believers as hostages, "easy prey for the nonsense, slogans, and quackery that these calculating, smooth-talking gurus put in their heads." The armed guards, ostentatious wealth and the collection of tithes--"tithing was obligatory and strictly monitored; followers had to present paystubs to calculate their contributions"--only add to the perception of these churches as a new kind of mafia.
However, nothing is ever black and white in The Night Will Be Long. The pastor's personal story is presented to readers as a lengthy, sympathetic tale of childhood abandonment, something like a short story crafted in the pastor's voice. Other similar tales are found throughout the novel, giving deep insight into characters that in a weaker novel would be bit players serving only to move the plot along. Intertwined with the main narrative, they help to form a complex portrait of a nation fraught with bitter ironies. Seeing a photo of very young FARC guerillas, Julieta reflects: "Her own children... posed for this kind of photo, except they were at malls or dance clubs." Gamboa has crafted an effective thriller that thrives on his empathetic imagination. --Hank Stephenson, the Sun magazine, manuscript reader
Shelf Talker: The Night Will Be Long provides an empathetic look at post-conflict Colombia through an eccentric thriller plot involving powerful evangelical churches.