LADY COLOMBIA

A Colombian teenager attempts to uncover a family secret in this debut literary novel.

Seventeen-year-old Laidy has lived her whole life in a small town in the shadow of the mighty Andes Mountains. She works at a diner, attends high school, and cares for her aging father, though she still feels the absence of the other members of her family. Her mother, according to her father’s account, disappeared without explanation when Laidy was an infant. Her sister, Yulie, ran off three years ago to live among the narcos, which has made her a pariah in their father’s house. One day, Laidy discovers a clue that seems to link her mother to Mexico. A possible scholarship to an elite college presents itself, but Laidy is distracted by an emergency: Her best friend, Cat Huerta, is pregnant as a result of a date rape that occurred months before. Laidy goes to a cousin, the narco-affiliated Santiago, for help, but the intervention results in a gang attack that lands her father in the hospital. While trying to donate blood to her father, she learns something even more shocking—she is not his biological daughter. So who is she? Laidy must navigate a network of narco plots and hidden agendas in order to discover the secrets of her origins and finally learn what happened to her mother all those years before. Zaghloul’s prose, tied closely to Laidy’s thoughts, is resonant and often riveting: “As they reached the vicinity of her neighborhood, she became aware of a commotion. Policia, at her house. Fear, her constant companion, pushed the elated girl to the side and began to drown her like the thick fog that rolled off the mountain in the mornings.” The narrative is somewhat meandering, pulling Laidy (and readers) in many directions without presenting a clear goal. The story ends up in a rather credulity-straining and unartful place (the author includes the entirety of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” in the final pages). But readers may enjoy the Colombian setting and the many twists that the novel delivers.

A surprising but imperfect tale about a put-upon teen investigating her parentage.