“Winner of Chile’s Literary Critics’ Award for Best Novel”
Now a Major Motion Picture
Hailed as a great Latin American literary event, this stylistically innovative, elliptically told tale of a young man and his love who mysteriously disappears is, as the narrator tells us, “a simple story that becomes complicated.”
Through both the distance and closeness of these young lovers, Alejandro Zambra brilliantly explores the relationship between art, love, and life. Bonsai is accessible yet profound—as one critic in Chile’s Capital newspaper put it, “Brief as a sigh and forceful as a blow.”
A tour de force of poetic storytelling Alejandro Zambra is a Chilean poet whose first excursion into fiction (Bonsai) created a literary sensation. His poetic talent infuses every page of this little novel. The writing in English is so exquisite that the original Spanish must be really exquisite. Every sentence gives pleasure. The prose is subtle, suggestive, playful, steeped in irony.At the same time, Zamba is a good storyteller. And he’s not shy about tangling with the great questions of life.The story…