Camanchaca
A Novel
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
On a near-silent drive across a desert with his father, a teenage boy puzzles out the mysteries of his family and himself in this acclaimed novel. As a fifteen-year-old boy takes a long drive across Chile’s Atacama desert with his father in a smoke-colored Ford Ranger, the teen simultaneously traverses “the worn-out puzzle” of his broken family—his corrosive intimacy with his mother, the obtrusive cheer of his absentee father, his uncle’s unexplained death. A low fog called camanchaca pushes in from the sea, its moisture sustaining near-barren landscape. Sometimes, the silences are what bind us. In this “arresting and deeply affecting read” (Publishers Weekly), Zúñiga is “following in the footsteps of fellow Chilean Roberto Bolaño” (Minnesota Star-Tribune). “It’s precisely this coolly observant language, deepening with the story, that lets us register the buried despair.” —Library Journal “A smart, straightforward narrative that reveals the varied mood a shared experience can evoke.” —Kirkus Reviews “Camanchaca has one of the strongest novel openings I’ve read in years, a knockout vignette that disarms the reader with a few beats of unnecessarily specific detail, and then seamlessly shifts into fast and steady motion while glancing across a violent mystery all in just a quarter of a page.” —Electric Literature
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This striking novel helps introduce Z iga, acclaimed Chilean author and journalist, to a wider English-language audience. Spurred by an offer to save his teeth from receding gums, a quiet and introspective young man joins his estranged father on a drive across the Atacama Desert from Santiago to Iquique. Along the way, the 20-year-old unnamed narrator begins to reflect on his relationships with his parents. Preparing to cross the border into Peru to visit a dentist in Tacna, he struggles to contextualize the broken recollections of his youth: his parent's separation when he was a child, a troubling moment with his mother, and the ambiguous details of his uncle Neno's death. Returning to his childhood home, the narrator seeks information on the whereabouts of a missing cousin who might have answers. With this skillful translation by McDowell, the story sustains suspense by gradually revealing itself. The fractured narrative switches from page to page between past revelations and present observations, mirroring the restless mind of the protagonist as he searches for connections. Z iga cleverly uses this technique to represent a young person's hunger for self-actualization. As the book progresses, "like someone putting together and taking apart a worn-out puzzle," these shattered pieces of prose sometimes only a single poignant sentence or evocative paragraph join together to build a vivid mosaic. This arresting and deeply affecting read, despite its short length, packs a punch.
