A taut, spare sociological novel about the emptiness of contemporary existence – scathing and affecting in equal measure
Intense, intelligent and extraordinarily sensitive, Alia Trabucco Zerán’s remarkable debut presents a new way to count the cost of generational trauma
Santiago, Chile. The city is covered in ash. Felipe, Iquela and Paloma, three children of ex-militants, are facing a past they can neither remember nor forget. Felipe sees dead bodies on park benches, counting them up in an obsessive quest to square the figures with the official death toll. He is searching for the perfect zero, a life with no remainder. When the body of Paloma’s mother gets lost in transit, the three take a hearse and a handful of pills on a road trip with a difference.
Alia Trabucco Zeran
About the Author
Alia Trabucco Zerán was born in Santiago, Chile, in August 1983
Sophie Hughes
About the Translator
Born in Surrey, Sophie Hughes is a literary translator from Spanish and ItalianOther nominated books by Sophie Hughes
Written in a chilling torrent of prose by one of Mexico’s most thrilling new writers, Paradais explores the explosive fragility of Mexican society. Translated by Sophie Hughes.
Fernanda Melchor’s formidable portrait of Mexico and its demons, written with a brutal lyricism that is as affecting as it is enthralling. The English edition is translated by Sophie Hughes
A masterpiece of metafiction, Mac and His Problem is Enrique Vila-Matas’s testament to the power and playfulness of great literature
