Alejandro Zambra, trans. from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $24 (160p) ISBN 978-0-374-28664-4
In this wonderful novel-within-a-novel, Zambra, born in Chile in 1975, contemplates the delayed unease of having grown up during Pinochet’s dictatorship: “While the adults killed or were killed, we drew pictures in the corner.” The book begins with...
READ FULL REVIEW
Alejandro Zambra, trans. from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. McSweeney’s, $15 trade paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-940450-52-0
The title story in Zambra’s (Ways of Going Home) story collection establishes a casual, conversational, self-aware tone: the narrator recalls not informing his parents when he becomes an altar boy, nor telling the priest that he hasn’t gone to...
READ FULL REVIEW
Alejandro Zambra, trans. from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Penguin, $15 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-0-14-310919-8
In this short, experimental book of fiction, Zambra (My Documents) skillfully adopts the form of a standardized test to spin off dozens of micro-tales. The form of the test, which is based on the actual Chilean Aptitude Test Zambra took as a youth,...
READ FULL REVIEW
Alejandro Zambra, trans. from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Viking, $27 (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-29794-0
Chilean writer Zambra (Multiple Choice) is best known in English for his experimental stories and novellas, tendencies he sheds to mixed results in this multigenerational story about South American poets. The reader first meets Gonzalo in 1991, when
READ FULL REVIEW
Alejandro Zambra, trans. from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Penguin Books, $18 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-14-313808-2
Zambra (Chilean Poet) considers new fatherhood in this eclectic mix of poetry and prose. The title essay, composed of vignettes addressed to his newborn son, Silvestre, is particularly lovely: “Your arrival forever changes... the meanings of all the
READ FULL REVIEW
