Antonio Yammara

Antonio Yammara is the main character and first-person narrator of the novel. At the novel’s start, Antonio is living by himself in Bogotá, Colombia. When he hears about a hippopotamus that escaped from the zoo and was killed by police, he starts to reflect on his experiences some years prior. In particular, Antonio finds himself “think[ing] stubbornly about the day Ricardo Laverde died” and immersing himself in “the precise details” of the events surrounding Ricardo’s death and his incidental involvement in the shooting (5). These reminiscences tug the narrative into scenes from Antonio’s past life, during which time he was 26 years old, had recently finished law school, and was “teaching the basics of the career to generations of frightened children just out of high school” (7). At the time, this occupation “was the only possible horizon in [Antonio’s] life,” and granted him not only...