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Juan Gabriel Vasquez was born in Colombia, but left when he was 23.

In part, the violence sweeping the country sparked his departure — the decades of drug-related killings in the 1980s and 90s had left Bogota scarred and terrified.

And in part, Vasquez left because he wanted to write.

"Every major Latin American writer of that great generation — Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes — all these people left their countries. And they were able to write the best novels ever written about their countries," Vasquez told MPR News host Kerri Miller. "So I was following that tradition — or rather, that superstition." 

But it took him years before he felt comfortable writing 

"I left before having published any books and I left feeling I didn't know the country," he said. "I didn't understand the country, so I wasn't allowed to write about it."

His first book was a collection of short stories about people in Belgium and France, the countries he traveled through after leaving Colombia. But then, after making his home in Spain, he had a realization.

"It took me several years abroad ... to understand that I didn't quite know the history of my country and its politics and its public — and that was precisely the best reason to write about it. Since then, I haven't written one page of fiction that is not obsessively Colombian." 

His newest book, "Reputations," is the first book he's written since he moved back to Bogota after years away.

It centers on a political cartoonist who serves as a moral compass for the public: Readers turns to his cartoons for the truth about their politicians and civic leaders. But an unexpected encounter leaves him with doubts about an incident in his past that resulted in a politician's death.

For readers expecting Vasquez's writing to be more in the vein of Colombia's most famous novelist, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and his signature magical realism, Vasquez laughs.

"One thing is literary influence, and another thing is literary influenza — the idea that Garcia Marquez is sort of a contagious phenomenon," he joked. 

For the full interview with Juan Gabriel Vasquez on "Reputations," use the audio player above.

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Juan Gabriel Vasquez left Colombia when he was 23 to escape the violence -- and to write. Now, he's back with the first book he's written since moving home to Bogota.

A new novel from Colombian novelist Juan Gabriel Vasquez about a political cartoonist  whose life is upended by revelations about the past.

In 'Reputations,' a powerful political cartoonist questions his influence

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