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A powerful love story about fighting against the church and God himself. Recreating the Colombia of the early twentieth century, God’s Punishment tells the story of a small town nestled in the mountains of Colombia that became a concentration camp run by the state, the church, and the medical community.

A book by Julián De La Chica

Since 2000, composer Julián De La Chica has been researching Agua de Dios, Colombia, and its history as a town forcibly confining leprosy patients and those suspected of having leprosy. For his research, De La Chica visited the community and interviewed persons with information about those who crossed the Puente de Los Suspiros (Bridge of Sighs) over the Río Bogotá and into the concentration camps. Those inmates, who were forced by the Colombian government to relinquish their rights as citizens—their identities, possessions, and families—numbered into the tens of thousands until the leprosarium was closed in 1961.

God's Punishment won the AWA (Award-Winning Author) award for Best Novel - Historical Fiction - English, and it has also received an Honorable Mention for Best LGBTQ+ Theme Book at the 25th edition of the International Latino Book Awards 2023 (ILBA). During the award ceremony at Los Angeles City College in LA, the book received the Silver Medal under its category.

The awards featured a competitive pool of over 3,000 submissions from around the world, which were meticulously assessed by a panel of 220 jurors.

“God’s Punishment is not just about a painful past. Even now, people often suffer not as much from the health conditions they have as from the public health measures that are supposed to manage those conditions. The fate of people affected by leprosy, and its impact on entire generations, is one of those sad stories. With powerful language, author Julián De La Chica reminds and warns us of what can happen when human rights are taken away from people.”

— Professor Dainius Pūras, MD
Psychiatrist and human rights advocate
Former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health

"Beautifully lyrical, De La Chica brings to life a near-forgotten chapter of Colombian history in this startling debut! Told as a series of drifting, recorded interviews with an old man about his past, and present day interludes with the young men who have been recruited to tell his story, there is a languid quality to God's Punishment that is well suited to the tale being told. Though fictional, De La Chica conducted extensive research, including interviews and trips to Agua de Dios, the Colombian lazaretto at the heart of this story. This background work shines through in the small details of time, place, pain, and joy, as three generations of characters slowly take shape, and their many-woven connections are brought to light for both the reader, and the documentarian, Leonardo, who is trying to pull this whole story together."

— Jennifer deBie, PhD
Author and poet

“Julián De La Chica listens to the wounds, the disease, the flesh that rots and falls off, stringing together testimonies of amputated lives.”

— Susan Campos-Fonseca, PhD
Musicologist, writer & composer

“An excellent read, cover to cover! Based on real life events that took place in Agua de Dios, Colombia at the turn of the 20th Century, “God’s Punishment” is a story of pain and suffering , of courage and injustice. Maestro Julián De La Chica does not shy away from taking the reader through a detailed tour of of what was arguably one of Colombia’s darkest moments, and (through a style of writing that almost feels like one is watching a documentary) making us aware of what can happen when fear and greed replace love and reason. This is a tough journey; sometimes dark, other times hopeful, but always captivating.”

— José Heredia
Opera Singer

“The tempo of De La Chica's writing in this book matches that found in some of his musical compositions and short films. Minimal and vibrant, unstructured and flowing. De La Chica most certainly deserves recognition for being able to write music and tell a story (in a book or in a film) in his own notes/words/images, with honesty. Devoid of decorum or over dramatization and always true to his reality and the perception of everyone else's.”

— Sophie Louyot
Former interpreter at the UN

"A breathtaking novel. God’s Punishment events captured my feelings with an enjoyable reading throughout my flight from New Jersey to Florida last week! I literally couldn't put the book aside until I finished the charming story ... I was eager to find out the truth and events unfolded quickly and excitingly... Until I reached the unexpected end. I interacted with the events and sympathized immensely with Luis and Julio. The author uses the flashback style in narrating the novel through Luis's reflection on his life path, which was dominated by excitement and many questions about his origins and who his biological parents are ... The author exposes the events of Agua de Dios, which was considered the exile of leprosy patients with a shameful classification devoid of humanity and compassion. I can’t wait to see this work embodied in a movie of an extremely powerful story!”

— Amazon Customer