{"product_id":"9780374534356","title":"Ways of Going Home : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eWays of Going Home\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Alejandro Zambra\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA brilliant novel from \"the herald of a new wave of Chilean fiction\" (Marcela Valdes, \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eAlejandro Zambra's \u003ci\u003eWays of Going Home \u003c\/i\u003ebegins with an earthquake, seen through the eyes of an unnamed nine-year-old boy who lives in an undistinguished middle-class housing development in a suburb of Santiago, Chile. When the neighbors camp out overnight, the protagonist gets his first glimpse of Claudia, an older girl who asks him to spy on her uncle Raúl.\u003cbr\u003e     In the second section, the protagonist is the writer of the story begun in the first section. His father is a man of few words who claims to be apolitical but who quietly sympathized—to what degree, the author isn't sure—with the Pinochet regime. His reflections on the progress of the novel and on his own life—which is strikingly similar to the life of his novel's protagonist—expose the raw suture of fiction and reality.\u003cbr\u003e     \u003ci\u003eWays of Going Home\u003c\/i\u003e switches between author and character, past and present, reflecting with melancholy and rage on the history of a nation and on a generation born too late—the generation which, as the author-narrator puts it, learned to read and write while their parents became accomplices or victims. It is the most personal novel to date from Zambra, the most important Chilean author since Roberto Bolaño.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Even IKEA doesn't make so much of so little space as does this young Chilean novelist. His latest book revolves around a quartet of chapters, woven around one thread about a young boy growing up in the Pinochet years and another of the novelist writing his story. In many ways, the book recalls the miniature roominess Philip Roth achieved in his great novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Ghost Writer\u003c\/i\u003e. The stories we tell imagine us as much as us them, Zambra reminds, with the power and intensity of a writer who grew up in the shadow of a terrible war.” —\u003ci\u003eJohn Freeman, The Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Funny, contemplative, and quietly moving, \u003ci\u003eWays of Going Home\u003c\/i\u003e pulls off the intoxicating trick of making the world feel smaller in its familiar touchstones found in a time of unique tragedy.” —\u003ci\u003eChris Barton, The Los Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Zambra's novels] are written with startling talent. And Zambra's latest novel represents, I think, his deepest achievement . . . 'We go home,' Zambra writes, 'and it's as if we were returning from war, but from a war that isn't over.' This is the giant, poignant condition staged by the novel's playful doubleness--the way the best conjuring trick is the one where you're shown how it's done, which in no way contradicts your belief that what you've seen is magic.” —\u003ci\u003eAdam Thirlwell, The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A fascinating reflection on historical complicity, translated with restrained elegance by Megan McDowell.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I read all of Alejandro Zambra's novels back-to-back because they were such good company. His books are like a phone call in the middle of the night from an old friend, and afterward, I missed the charming and funny voice on the other end, with its strange and beautiful stories.” —\u003ci\u003eNicole Krauss, author of Great House\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In Alejandro Zambra, the poet and novelist are organically fused. Nearly every line startles in one way or another, always propelling the story forward toward a complete emotional journey. \u003ci\u003eWays of Going Home \u003c\/i\u003eis compact, intimate, but also sweeping--and Zambra is amazing!” —\u003ci\u003eFrancisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Alejandro Zambra is one of the writers of my generation whom I most admire. Never a wasted word. Never a false note. His is an utterly unique voice, one I go back to again and again.” —\u003ci\u003eDaniel Alarcón, author of Lost City Radio\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I envy Alejandro the obvious sophistication and exquisite beauty of the pages you are about to read, a work which is filled with the heartfelt vulnerability of testimony. I loved it and I read it with the great joy of anticipation that one has reading a writer one hopes to read more and more of in the future.” —\u003ci\u003eEdwidge Danticat, Granta\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Alejandro Zambra belongs to that rare species of writer who brings language back to life. The strength of \u003ci\u003eWays of Going Home\u003c\/i\u003e, its potency, is in the way it unfolds language in order to place its readers at that almost ungraspable intersection between individual and collective history.” —\u003ci\u003eValeria Luiselli, author of Faces in the Crowd\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Complex yet sophisticated, [\u003ci\u003eWays of Going Home\u003c\/i\u003e] places Zambra at the spearhead of a new Chilean fiction and sets him alongside other Latin American writers such as Colombia's Juan Gabriel Vasquez, who weave some of the continent's most difficult historical themes into an exciting modern art form.” —\u003ci\u003eMina Holand, The Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eWays of Going Home\u003c\/i\u003e manages, in its sparse, moving, constantly smoking cool-eyed Chilean way, to add up to a stark and timely study of fiction, truth, memory, family, revolution, secrets, lies, sex, Pinochet and death . . . A wonderful book.” —\u003ci\u003eStuart Hammond, Dazed \u0026amp; Confused\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rising through the ranks of Latin American literature is Alejandro Zambra, a writer from Chile who has won over critics with his captivating work . . . Thought-provoking and inspiring, [\u003ci\u003eWays of Going Home\u003c\/i\u003e] also echoes some of the author's own nostalgia of growing up during that turbulent time.” —\u003ci\u003eAbi Jackson, Manchester Evening News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong-listed The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year (2013)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374534356\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40648056078542,"sku":"9780374534356","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_077c5916-a7ba-4fb4-bb91-02751f44455c.jpg?v=1639190361","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374534356","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}