Chilean Poet

A Novel

By: Alejandro Zambra, Megan McDowell - translator

Narrated by: Gisela Chípe

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WALL STREET JOURNAL TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR
ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE”

“A tender and funny story about love, family and the peculiar position of being a stepparent…[Chilean Poet] broadens the author’s scope and quite likely his international reputation.” —Los Angeles Times

“Zambra [is] one of the most brilliant Latin American writers of his generation.” —The New York Review of Books

“Zambra's books have long shown him to be a writer who, at the sentence level, is in a world all his own.” —Juan Vidal, NPR.org

A writer of “startling talent” (The New York Times Book Review), Alejandro Zambra returns with his most substantial work yet: a story of fathers and sons, ambition and failure, and what it means to make a family

After a chance encounter at a Santiago nightclub, aspiring poet Gonzalo reunites with his first love, Carla. Though their desire for each other is still intact, much has changed: among other things, Carla now has a six-year-old son, Vicente. Soon the three form a happy sort-of family—a stepfamily, though no such word exists in their language.

Eventually, their ambitions pull the lovers in different directions—in Gonzalo’s case, all the way to New York. Though Gonzalo takes his books when he goes, still, Vicente inherits his ex-stepfather’s love of poetry. When, at eighteen, Vicente meets Pru, an American journalist literally and figuratively lost in Santiago, he encourages her to write about Chilean poets—not the famous, dead kind, your Nerudas or Mistrals or Bolaños, but rather the living, striving, everyday ones. Pru’s research leads her into this eccentric community—another kind of family, dysfunctional but ultimately loving. Will it also lead Vicente and Gonzalo back to each other?

In Chilean Poet, Alejandro Zambra chronicles with enormous tenderness and insight the small moments—sexy, absurd, painful, sweet, profound—that make up our personal histories. Exploring how we choose our families and how we betray them, and what it means to be a man in relationships—a partner, father, stepfather, teacher, lover, writer, and friend—it is a bold and brilliant new work by one of the most important writers of our time.

Good story. Great voice acting.

I had a few issues with the male gaze especially in the earlier chapters while I was reading it. So I turned to the audio. The female narration somehow softened the text and I was finally able to focus better on the character arcs and the humor and the lively lives of these Chilean poets.

Lovely Read — incredible narration

What a vibrant translation and a gorgeous narration. This story offers a beautiful mix of humor, intelligence, warmth, and complexity.

Thought provoking, intelligent, and well-performed

Originally, I bought this book in a used book store, and I had a couple of false starts reading it. Then I bought the audible book and established a better foothold by listening to the first two hours. First, the narration is excellent. Even though the main characters are male, the female voice captivates and makes each character distinct although Gonzalo and Vicente's dialogue sounds similar this just adds a layer to think about thematically. The novel's framework itself is fairly traditional in many ways as we follow Gonzalo, our first Chilean poet, through his youth and into his 40's: sex, a relationship, and a stepson- our second Chilean poet. The story however is couched in Chilean culture and the world of poetry which is both a serious pursuit and a laughable waste of time. The writer tells a compelling story about the creative path both in terms of creating a life, a family, and meaning. An originally purposeful pursuit of poetry is abandoned in the end for academia while the step son, unprovoked, chooses to pursue poetry. There is a lot to think about here, but the story holds throughout since it is skillfully told and compelling with both laugh out loud moments and insightful lines for reflection. I have been reluctant to pick up a new book once I finished reading this book. This is a hidden gem and I hope that others will discover it.

Beautifully rendered story

Captures the tenderness, failures and quirks of modern families. Warm, heartbreaking, human—and hopeful, too. Wonderfully narrated by Gisela Chipe.

Beautiful Novel, But A Bit Wandering

This is a book outside of my normal comfort zone. Like poetry, it's a story that's not told perfectly linearly, and new characters and ideas pop up throughout. But what this book does well is tell the story of a family in Chile and the poetry scene that surrounds them. I didn't always love everything this book had to offer, but as a narrative, it was beautiful, and the ending was as good as they come.