Gonzalo is a frustrated would-be poet in a city full of poets; poets lurk in every bookshop,prop up every bar,ready to debate the merits of Teillier and Millan (but never Neruda - beyond the pale). Then,nine years after their bewildering breakup,Gonzalo reunites with his teen sweetheart,Carla,who is now,to his surprise,the mother of a young son,Vicente. Soon they form a happy sort-of family - a stepfamily,though no such word exists in their language.In time,fate and ambition pull the lovers apart,but when it comes to love and poetry,what will be Gonzalo's legacy to his not-quite-stepson Vicente Zambra chronicles with tenderness and insight the everyday moments - absurd,painful,sexy,sweet,profound - that constitute family life in this bold and brilliant new novel.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Granta BooksISBN: 9781783782901Number of pages: 368Weight: 280 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 24 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Erotic and erudite,tender and wise,this novel tumbles through Chilean literary history via an intimate portrait of a young artist's yearnings; it will delight every lover and poet alike.A very funny,warm and beautiful novelHis clever irony,his lighthearted yet powerful prose,his gift for capturing this life that passes through and yet still escapes us - everything Zambra has already put into practice in his novellas and short stories explodes with vitality in Chilean Poet. Contemporary,ingenious,magnificentEvery beat and pattern of being alive becomes revelatory and bright when narrated by Alejandro Zambra. He is a modern wonderZambra writes with wit and warmth,and his characters are penned with compassion and humour... An uplifting and at times laugh-out-loud read(Chilean Poet) treats the thorny topic of collective identity not as tragedy,but as a familialcomedy. Its laughs are forged across languagesA tender and funny story about love,family and the peculiar position of being a stepparent ...(Chilean Poet) broadens the author's scope and quite likely his international reputationSplendid...(it has) one of the best endings to a novel that I have read in years,a scene of beautiful emotional improvisationThe thing that has always made Zambra's writing irresistible (to me,anyway) is his attention tothe seemingly inconsequential matters that render our lives so flush with consequence... wonderfully original(Zambra is) an artist who does not simply notate the numbing details of daily life but spins the quotidian into art...cleareyed and tenderExcruciatingly funny... a highly entertaining,engaging and complex detailing of why words matterSo convincing,so tenderly wrought,and so laugh-out-loud funny,that one begins to suspect Chilean Poet might be the best thing (Zambra has) ever written... it is,in short,a complete joyA heartwarming comedy about parenthood and poetry... deft,poignant and emotionally acuteSuperb... (Zambra is) one of the sharpest writers in Spanish today... Chilean Poet,happily,is accomplished at all it doesThe pursuit of a poetic life becomes the vehicle for a wry and poignant story of masculine self-discovery...A sharp-eyed,warm-hearted modern-family romance in the vein of a David Nicholls or Nick Hornby from the Southern Cone... (a) genial,shrewd and tender novelIn this profound,at times absurd and often very funny investigation of family and failure,Zambra proves himself to be an important voice in contemporary Latin American literature
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