Bonsai

A Novel

De: Alejandro Zambra, Megan McDowell

Narrado por: Gisela Chípe

“Sublime . . . true and beautiful and moving.” —The New York Times Book Review

The landmark first novel of one of the greatest living Latin American writers—now in a sparkling new translation by his longtime collaborator

When it was first published in 2006, then-literary critic and poet Alejandro Zambra’s first novel, Bonsai, caused a sensation. “It was said,” according to Chile’s newspaper of record, El Mercurio, “that it represented the end of an era, or the beginning of another, in the nation’s letters.” Zambra would go on to become a writer of international renown, winning prizes in Chile and around the world for his funny, tender, sly fictions.

Here, in a brilliant new translation from four-time International Booker Prize nominee Megan McDowell, is the little book that started it all: The story of Julio and Emilia, two Chilean university students who, seeking truth in great literature, find one another instead. As they fall together and drift apart over the course of young adulthood, Zambra spins an emotionally engrossing, expertly distilled, formally inventive tale of love, art, and memory.

©2012 Alejandro Zambra (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

Winner of Chile’s Literary Critics’ Award for Best Novel

“Lively, often funny and aphoristic . . . [Bonsai] holds stories within stories.” —James Wood, The New Yorker

“Readers who consider Roberto Bolaño the pole star of contemporary Chilean fiction will be jolted by Zambra's little book . . . Zambra is indeed the herald of a new wave of Chilean fiction.” —The Nation

“A subtle, eerie, ultimately wrenching account of failed young love . . . A total knockout.” —Junot Díaz, The New York Times Book Review