Book Overview

This assured debut novel from acclaimed Chilean author Andrea Jeftanovic explores the devastating psychological effects of the conflict in the Balkans on a family who flee to South America to build a new life. It is told from the perspective of the young Tamara, as she tries to make sense of growing up haunted by a distant conflict. Yet the ghosts of war re-emerge in their new land – which has its own traumatic past – to tear the family apart.

The Narrative Style

Staging scenes from childhood as if the characters were rehearsing for a play, the novel uses all the imaginary resources of theatre director, set painter and lighting designer to pose the question: how can Tamara salvage an identity as an adult from the ruins of memory, and rediscover the ability to love?

Themes and Comparisons

With themes that echo Elif Shafak’s The Bastard of Istanbul, a sensitive narrator recalling Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, and a focus on the body in the style of Elfriede Jelinek, this is an artfully constructed, widely praised work from one of the most exciting novelists at work in Latin America today.