Book, Fiction 2006-2014: (Zambra) Bonsai, The private life of trees[LS]

In a single volume, all the fiction written by the Chilean author, from his debut with the acclaimed Bonsai to the unclassifiable Múltipla Escolha. Alejandro Zambra is undoubtedly one of the main voices in world literature today. In this volume, Bonsai (2006), The private life of trees (2007), Ways of returning home (2011), My documents (2013) and Multiple choice (2014) are brought together in an unprecedented way. The book also contains nine scattered stories, published in magazines, newspapers and anthologies. What is in common here is the crystal clear, delicate tone with which Zambra conducts his plots. "Tone is his great invention", noted Argentine Alan Pauls, one of those who are part of the increasingly numerous brotherhood of Alejandro Zambra's admirers. Bonsai is the story of a love, that of Julio and Emilia, and it is the story of the end of this love. It wouldn't be wrong to say that it's also a story about awareness of the end. In The Private Life of Trees, a man, Julián, and his stepdaughter, Daniela, distract the hours while waiting for the girl's mother to return home. The novel takes place in a single night, and within it are a series of stories about the life of trees — and about all of us. Ways of returning home marks a turning point, bringing into play the 1970s in Chile, the years of Pinochet's coup, but also, and above all, the 1980s and the generation of those who were children or teenagers during the dictatorship. My Documents brings together eleven miniature formation novels; tales of love and discovery, in which intimacy mixes with the bloody air of the Chilean past — the same air that spreads throughout the radicality of Múltipla Escolha. An impressive set of perfect stories. "I read Alejandro Zambra's novels one after another, because they were such good company. His books are like a late-night phone call from an old friend, and I soon missed that elegant, funny voice on the other end of the line, with his stories beautiful and extraordinary." —Nicole Krauss