The exotic escape and subsequent capture of a hippopotamus the final remnant of the incongruous zoo Pablo Escobar used to flaunt his power is the spark that activates the mechanisms of Antonio Yammara s memory, protagonist and narrator of El ruido de las cosas al caer a dark balance from a time of terror and violence, set in a Bogota painted as a region full of literary significance. In 1995, Antonio meets the intriguing Ricardo Laverde, a man who has served a 20-year sentence. Laverde, an acknowledged pilot, is part of the group that gathers at the pool hall where Yammara, a young university Law professor, burns what is left of his youth. The two men become fast friends, to the point where Antonio, whose life has always been full of doubts, affirms that a warning hides within his friend s tortuous experience.
