Alejandro Zambra is a Chilean novelist and poet. He is the author of three novels: Ways of Going Home, The Private Lives of Trees, and Bonsai, which was awarded Chile’s Literary Critics’ Award for Best Novel. His writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Tin House, Harper’s, and McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, among other places. In 2010, he was selected as one of the Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists by Granta. He currently teaches literature at the Diego Portales University in Santiago.
One of The Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015.
Shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story
Award.
Included in The Millions Most Anticipated for 2015.
Included in BuzzFeed's Most Exciting Books of 2015 from Independent
Publishers.
A Publishers Weekly pick of the week. ?...at once metafictional and
vibrantly turned out to the world. Zambra reflects on the
obligations of writing fiction in a country tormented by heavy
political realities (he was born in 1975, two years after the coup
that brought down President Salvador Allende and installed the
murderous General Augusto Pinochet), and ?My Documents" is full of
wonderful, sparkling, vital human details."
?James Wood, The New Yorker's "The Books I Loved in 2015" "This
dynamite collection of stories has it all?Chile and Belgium, exile
and homecomings, Pinochet and Simon and Garfunkel?but what I love
most about the tales is their strangeness, their intelligence, and
their splendid honesty." ?Junot D�az "In his new book, Zambra
returns to the twin sources of his talent?to his storytelling
vitality, that living tree which blossoms often in these pages, and
to his unsparing examination of recent Chilean history."?The New
Yorker "Zambra more than delivers with his latest. He's a
thoughtful craftsman, brick by brick laying the foundation for
works that transcend continents and labels. Let us now forget the
smallness of simply spearheading a new Latin American fiction. My
Documents goes beyond that, burning brighter than most anything
we'd call exceptional, yesterday or today and in any language."?NPR
"The stories gathered in My Documents might be pulled straight from
Zambra's computer files; despite their polish, they are pleasingly
miscellaneous, unmediated? Zambra knows how to turn the familiar
inside out, but he also knows how to wrap us up in it. These
generous stories satisfy our demand for narrative even as they
question it." ?Natasha Wimmer, The New York Times "Zambra's stories
convey with striking honesty what it's like to be Chilean today"
?Publishers Weekly (Starred review) "Zambra's dazzlingly funny and
playful collection of tales makes clear that to fully comprehend
Chilean history one must entertain a sense of the surreal." ?The
Boston Globe "Sentence-by-sentence pleasure? [Zambra's] most
substantial achievement yet." ?The Seattle Times "In this excellent
collection, as in all his work, memory is put under a microscope,
and the division between author and characters is never certain?
Zambra's stories are always?or always allege to be?acts of
remembrance, and the care he takes to let his readers know that
suggests something distinctive about his method." ?The Guardian
"Much like Junot D�az's Drown, the stories in Chilean author
Zambra's collection are discrete tales that blend together with an
impressive fluidity. Zambra's characters, who have many of the same
personal habits (smoking, listening to '80s pop) and secret
predilections (writing poetry, experimenting sexually), seem part
of a big, fragmented novel. Through 11 stories, the author's
charming cast examines religion, soccer, relationships, and the
lure of solitude?all from a distinctly Chilean perspective. But the
view is also a youthful one, neatly capturing the puzzling process
of trying to figure out who you really are. A?" ?Entertainment
Weekly "Zambra is a direct literary descendant of his older, late
compatriot Bola�o. He serves us black, urgent humor with a
quotidian casualness, a deceptive simplicity that has no room for
the fantastical, the magical, or the exuberant New World
celebrations of, say, Neruda or Walt Whitman. The single thread of
belief for some of Zambra's protagonists is literature itself and
its ability, through plain, naked language, to present life as it
is felt and lived? Zambra's work possesses a historical sadness
that has no time for the gloss of nostalgia. It's a literature that
believes in itself, even when it's mired in despair." ?Bookforum
?[M]emorable and masterful"?The Harvard Crimson ?Touching" ?Wall
Street Journal ?Zambra finds beauty in the anguish, meaning in the
mundane and an elemental spark of fire in even the flintiest parts
of our human hearts."?Denver Post "This dynamite collection of
stories has it all?Chile and Belgium, exile and homecomings,
Pinochet and Simon and Garfunkel?but what I love most about the
tales is their strangeness, their intelligence, and their splendid
honesty." ?Junot D�az ?Zambra's latest is also his best? A truly
beautiful book." ?Daniel Alarc�n ?Full of brilliance. This is a new
Latin American literature." ?Mona Simpson ?My Documents is an act
of literary levitation?luminous, magical and profound, written with
the mysterious quality of weightlessness." ?Jess Walter ?Zambra is
so alert to the intimate beauty and mystery of being alive that in
his hands a raindrop would feel as wide as a world." ?Anthony Marra
?My Documents represents a new form. When I think about Zambra, I
feel happy for the future of fiction." ?Adam Thirlwell ?Zambra is
the author of small classics?short in length, but enormous in every
other way.My Documents elevates him to an entirely new level."
?Valeria Luiselli ?Zambra is one of my favorite living writers. He
brings such clarity, exactitude, compassion, oddity, and
inventiveness to his books that every new volume he publishes goes
on my read-this-immediately list." ?Kevin Brockmeier ?[Zambra's]
best book." ?Flavorwire ?What distinguishes Alejandro from his
contemporaries is the sweetness and intimacy of his writing, and
his confidence in letting himself be as he is."?Vice ?Exceedingly
well told? My Documents forces a reader to contemplate what makes a
novel cohere, and where we draw the lines between autobiography and
fiction, author and subject? translated expertly by Megan
McDowell." ?Barnes and Noble Review "Zambra has enormous skill for
conveying lush emotional landscapes with stripped and distant
language." ?Electric Literature "Winningly arch and unusual takes
on common household predicaments."?Kirkus "[Alejandro] Zambra
continues to portray in his writing the depth of feeling that
humans bring forth in each other? Zambra's impeccable style and
knowledge of humanity are central to these 11 stories." ?Booklist
"Extraordinary ? these pages are animated by candid, familiar
voices in whose recollections we become gently imbricated." ?Words
Without Borders ?[His] best work ever." ?Roberto Careaga C., La
Tercera ?The work of an author capable of creating outstanding
stories, some of which? could form part of any collection of the
best writers in Spanish of the last few decades. ?Patricio Pron,
ABC ?The first thing that should be said about My Documents is that
it is one of those books that is difficult to categorize, but it is
in this indefinable nature that its intrinsic value resides."
?I�aki Ezkerra, El Correo Espa�ol
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