Julianne Pachico

For readers of The Vegetarian and Friday Black, The Anthill is an intoxicating literary ghost story about a young woman returning home to seek redemption for a past she can't remember. Lina has come home to the country of her childhood. Sent away from Colombia to England after her mother's death twenty years before, she's searching for the one person who can tell her about their shared past. She's never forgotten Matty, her childhood friend and protector, who now runs The Anthill, a day care refuge for the street kids of Medellín. Lina begins volunteering there, but her reunion with Matty is not what she hoped for. Medellín is entering a new era, and Matty appears to have taken the city's attempts to redefine itself post-conflict to heart. He has no interest in discussing the past and his enigmatic behavior puts Lina on guard. And then, strange happenings start taking place at The Anthill: violent scratches appear on the inside of the supply closet door, kids make disturbing crayon drawings and insist they've seen a small boy with pointy teeth. Did Lina bring these disturbances with her? Is this a vision of the boy she once knew, or something more sinister? And what will her search for atonement cost Matty? A visceral, hallucinatory ride by an author who has been called "blunt, fresh, and unsentimental" (The New York Times Book Review) and "remarkably inventive" (The Atlantic), The Anthill is a searingly honest exploration of how privilege can corrupt good intentions and what healing might look like--for both a person and a country--in the wake of horror.

The Anthill

"Pachico's debut novel, set during the ongoing civil war in Colombia, is a prismatic tale about a group of characters whose lives intersect in often unexpected ways"--

A Novel

The Lucky Ones

Lena has always lived in the jungle with Mother. There they look after a holiday home in surroundings that burst with colour and crawl with danger. Lena's only other friend is Isabella, who once visited regularly with her wealthy parents and security drone, Anton. But Isabella and her family haven't been seen in years. Mother is not like other mothers. She gets angry when Lena draws her with a face. When Lena challenges her to portray herself, she paints a tiny yellow dot surrounded by swirling black. She is a bastion of light, she says, against an army of darkness. Outside, rebels are fighting to take over the country. Mother is determined nothing will change inside the security fence, nothing to threaten her bond with Lena, or endanger the family. But there are secrets that need to emerge. How did Lena end up here? And what has happened to the family who no longer visit? What has Mother been planning, and what is gathering around them to change their lives forever?

Jungle House

He doesn't see us, but we're watching. An eerily atmospheric short story set in a Columbian country house.

The Tourists

A wildly original blend of social horror and razor-sharp satire, The Anthill is a searing exploration of privilege, racism and redemption in the Instagram age. In the end, it's much easier to not look at the screaming feeling. To not examine it. Better to just keep on rushing on. . . . Lina has come home to the country of her childhood. Sent away from Colombia to England after her mother's death twenty years before, she's searching for the one person who can tell her about their shared past. She's never forgotten Matty--her childhood friend and protector who now runs The Anthill, a daycare refuge for the street kids of Medellín. Lina begins volunteering there, but her reunion with Matty is not what she hoped for. She no longer recognizes Medellín, now rebranded as a tourist destination, nor the person Matty has become: a guarded man uninterested in reliving the past she thought they both cherished. As Lina begins to confront her memories and the country's traumatic history, strange happenings start taking place at The Anthill: something is violently scratching at the inside of the closet door, the kids are drawing unsettling pictures, and there are mysterious sightings of a small, dirty boy with pointy teeth. Is this a vision of the boy Lina once knew, or something more sinister? Did she bring these disturbances with her? And what will her search for atonement cost Matty? A visceral, hallucinatory ride by an author who has been called "blunt, fresh and unsentimental" (The New York Times Book Review) and "remarkably inventive" (The Atlantic), The Anthill is a ghost story unlike any other, a meditation on healing--for both a person and a country--in the wake of horror.

Julianne Pachico

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