Holiday Heart (Charco Press, £9.99) is the second book by Colombian writer Margarita Garcia Robayo to appear in English after her critically acclaimed Fish Soup. In her new novella, Robayo explores the slow disintegration of marriage and the experiences of a Colombian immigrant family in New Haven, US.
 
Precise and sharp in its use of language, it is as devastating in its emotional content and sarcastic tone. It tells the story of Pablo and Lucia — he a bored teacher forever writing a novel and she a cold and calculating journalist — who are going through a relationship break-up after years of marriage. Lucia decides to take their twins for a holiday break in Florida and there the story unravels.

Every sentence in the book seems to be written with a scalpel infused with acid. That precision permeates the narrative throughout, providing a clinical detachment to this exploration of complex issues of casual racism, Latin-American migration to the US, class and race, as well as maternal love, national identity and loss.