After getting his Master's degree in the US, and because he can't get a job, and because all he wants to do all day is sit at his Play Station, Enrique Márquez Pino, a middleclass Bogotan, is forced to return to his home country, where he is to live with his father. Enrique believes that nothing is unattainable for a young, smart and hard-working Colombian (poor idiot). Nothing gets too nice for him in Bogotá, but at least he gets the chance to portray his countrymen and women.

"Told with sharp humor and uninching honesty, Mother Tongue is a riotous, double-edged exploration of what it means to feel a stranger in one's own homeland. Juan Fernando Hincapié is a writer to watch."

Patricia Engel, author of Vida and The Veins of the Ocean