A young boy plays hide and seek in the suburbs of Santiago,unaware that his neighbours are becoming entangled in the brutality of Pinochet's regime. Then one night a mysterious girl appears in his neighbourhood and makes a life-changing request.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Granta BooksISBN: 9781847086273Number of pages: 160Weight: 117 gDimensions: 197 x 130 x 10 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Zambra is one of the writers of my generation that I most admire. Never a wasted word. Never a false note. His is an utterly unique voice,one I go back to again and againI've found myself rereading,trying to work out this short novel's intricate structure of gaps and holesComplex yet sophisticated,the novel places Zambra at the spearhead of a new Chilean fiction. (He) weaves some of the continent's most difficult historical themes into an exciting modern art formA brief,elegant novel of life and writing after Pinochet... Zambra cannot simply be pigeonholed as a "Spanish-Language" writer.His concerns and influences are broader,and (his writing) has a meditative,discursive timbre... NotableAn achievement in pace,rhythm,and poetic restraint... With quietly disarming prose,Zambra captures the spirit of a people struggling inside themselves to tell - and,most of all,live - a better storyBrilliantDeceptively slight and finely wrought: both a wistful look at Chile's recent political history and a metafictional reflection on the nature of writing... Zambra is one of Chile's finest writersManages,in its sparse,moving,constantly smoking cool-eyed Chilean way,to add up to a stark and timely study of fiction,truth,memory,secrets,sex,Pinochet and death... WonderfulA fascinating reflection on historical complicity,translated with restrained elegance by Megan McDowellA thrilling novel from one of Chile's outstanding young writers... Zambra's tightly crafted work explores the themes of childhood,disappointment,and the impossibility of ever returning homeA work which is filled with the heartfelt vulnerability of testimony. I loved it and I read it with the great joy of anticipation that one has reading a writer one hopes to read more and more of in the futureThought-provoking and inspiring... a captivating bookZambra belongs to that rare species of writers that bring language back to life. The strength of this novel,its potency,is in the way it unfolds language in order to place its readers at that almost ungraspable intersection between individual and collective historyZambra mixes fiction with reality... a brief but brilliant coming of age novelThought-provoking and inspiring,the book also echoes some of the author's own nostalgia of growing up during that turbulent time... CaptivatingZambra at his best offers an intimate recognition of his central characters,and he can evoke a setting succinctlyBrilliant
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