Vásquez already achieved international success with his debut novel Los informantes from 2004 (Engl. The Informers, Bloomsbury 2008). For El ruido de las cosas al caer (Eng: The Sound of Things Falling, Riverhead Books 2013), Vásquez received the Premio Alfaguara de Novela, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the most highly endowed literary prizes in the world, and the Premio Gregor von Rezzori. His most recent novel, La forma de las ruinas (Eng: The Shape of the Ruins, Riverhead Books 2018) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2019. His most recent book is the collection of stories Canciones para el incendio (Eng: Songs for the Flames, McLehose Press 2020). In all of his books, Vásquez, who sees his narrative style as a counter to the style of magical realism, grapples with Colombia's violent history that unsettles his characters: The traces of political persecution in 1930s Colombia, the impact of drug trafficking in Colombia and a generation shaped by the war between Pablo Escobar's cartel and the government in the long run, the power of political drawings through the figure of an influential Colombian cartoonist, and the assassination of liberal Jorge Eliécer Gaitàn in Bogotá in 1948, which sparked a decade-long civil war. In addition to his work as a writer, Vásquez translated authors such as Victor Hugo and E. M. Forster, wrote essays and columns for the Colombian magazine El Espectador, and taught, among other things, as a visiting professor of world literature in Bern. After many years of working in Europe, Vásquez now lives with his family in Bogotá.