Bonsai

'There's a dreamy associative quality of the novella that made it feel true and beautiful and moving. I left Bonsai feeling a little melancholic ache in my ribs, as though some crucial part of me had been taken away.'
-- New York Times

'Not a single word is wasted in this powerful, elegantly told story, which traces through a few episodes in the lives of Julio and Emilia, two young people who fall for one another at university--bonding over their love of literature and discussion--then retreat from one another's lives.'
-- Literary Hub

'Bonsai fulfills one of the requirements of the short novel: the search for perfection [...] supremely, effectively ambiguous.'
-- J.A. Masoliver Ródenas, La Vanguardia

'Rather than shrink in its conversion to bound covers, as most manuscripts do, Zambra's text has swelled-and its effect on the world of Chilean literature has been entirely disproportionate to its size.'
-- Marcela Valdes, The Nation

'Every beat and pattern of being alive becomes revelatory and bright when narrated by Alejandro Zambra. He is a modern wonder.'
-- Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch

'Strikingly original.'
-- James Wood, New Yorker

'The "last truly great book" I read has to be Alejandro Zambra's Bonsai. A subtle, eerie, ultimately wrenching account of failed young love in Chile among the kind of smartypant set who pillow-talk about the importance of Proust.... A total knockout.'
-- Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

'When I read Zambra I feel like someone's shooting fireworks inside my head.'
-- Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive

'The most talked-about writer to come out of Chile since Bolaño.'
-- New York Times

Alejandro Zambra is the author of the novels Chilean Poet, Multiple Choice, Ways of Going Home, The Private Lives of Trees, and Bonsai; the short story collection, My Documents, a finalist for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award; and Not to Read, a collection of essays. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, as well as a Cullman Center fellowship, his stories have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, The White Review and Harper's, among others. He lives in Mexico City.

Megan McDowell is an award-winning Spanish-language translator. She has translated books by Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, Mariana Enríquez and Lina Meruane, among others, and her short story translations have appeared in the New Yorker, theParis Review, Harper'sandThe White Review. She lives in Santiago, Chile.