Chilean Poet

A Novel

By: Alejandro Zambra, Megan McDowell - translator

Narrated by: Gisela Chipe

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.

©2022 Alejandro Zambra and Megan McDowell (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Chilean Poet complicates the notion of an artistic birthright rooted in national identity . . . [it] treats the thorny topic of collective identity not as tragedy, but as a familial comedy. Its laughs are forged across languages . . . [such] that one happily loses track of any original.”—New York Times Book Review

“[Zambra] mix[es] tenderness, depth and laugh-out-loud humor . . . [his] incursions into metafiction, in which the author peeks in and winks at the reader, feel playful, serendipitous. He’s clearly having fun.”—Los Angeles Times

“[A] splendid book . . . Chilean Poet moves deftly among different points of view . . . [Vicente's] complicated reunion with Gonzalo is one of the best endings to a novel that I have read in years, a scene of beautiful emotional improvisation.”—Wall Street Journal

Lovely Read — incredible narration

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

Beautifully rendered story

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

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.

Interesting but not my cup of tea .

. The author weaves a good story. I think Iearned a Iittle about Chilean cu lture.. The author illustrate Iife with warmth and humor./ But to for me, I'm reminded of a "Tela novella". Athough I could emphasize with the characters I felt more on an on Iooker,. watching the scene play out.