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Ways of Going Home
Alejandro Zambra
Novel, 2011. Translated from Spanish
A Santiago childhood under Pinochet, showing how the dictatorship's shadow shaped a generation's memories and family silences.
Books by country South America
Books set in Chile
Ten books by writers from Chile, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with Ways of Going Home and Paula.
About the literature of Chile
Chile is often called a country of poets: Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda both won the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945 and 1971. Most Chilean writing is in Spanish, but Mapuche storytelling and the Mapudungun language run deep, and in 2020 Elicura Chihuailaf became the first Mapuche writer to win the National Prize for Literature. Neruda's Memoirs, from his boyhood in the rainy south to politics and exile, are a lively way in.
Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (1973–1990) casts a long shadow, and exile, memory and family recur. Isabel Allende's Paula, written for her daughter, weaves family history into Chile's politics. Roberto Bolaño's By Night in Chile is a dying priest's feverish confession of his compromises with the regime. Alejandro Zambra's spare, inventive novels, such as Bonsai and Ways of Going Home, follow a generation living with a past it only half understands.
By writers from Chile
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Paula
Isabel Allende
Memoir, 1994. Translated from Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden
A memoir written at her daughter's bedside, tracing Allende's Chilean childhood, family history and exile after the 1973 coup.
My Invented Country
Isabel Allende
Memoir, 2003. Translated from Spanish
A personal memoir of Chilean character, landscape and history, from Santiago childhood to the 1973 coup and exile.
Death and the Maiden
Ariel Dorfman
Drama, 1991. Translated from Spanish
A play set in an unnamed country, clearly post-dictatorship Chile, where a former political prisoner confronts her suspected torturer.
Heading South, Looking North
Ariel Dorfman
Memoir, 1998
A memoir of Dorfman's life between Chile and the US, including Allende's government and the 1973 coup.
Distant Star
Roberto Bolaño
Novel, 1996. Translated from Spanish
A narrator pursues a pilot-poet who is secretly a murderer under Pinochet's regime, portraying Chile's 1970s literary scene.
My Tender Matador
Pedro Lemebel
Novel, 2001. Translated from Spanish by Katherine Silver
A Santiago love story in 1986 between an ageing queer cross-dresser and a young revolutionary, set against Pinochet's repression.
The Twilight Zone
Nona Fernández
Novel, 2016. Translated from Spanish
A woman uncovers a former secret-police agent's testimony, revealing the dictatorship's lasting hold on Santiago's everyday life.
Memoirs
Pablo Neruda
Memoir, 1974. Translated from Spanish
The poet recalls his southern frontier childhood, travels, politics and exile, giving a vivid sense of Chilean cultural life.
Bonsai
Alejandro Zambra
Novel, 2006. Translated from Spanish
A short novel of Santiago's young literary set, tracing love, loss and quiet post-dictatorship unease.
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