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#InternationalBooker2024 Book 3

This is a weird story that in certain ways reminds me of Samanta Schweblin‘s writing.

There is little punctuation and past and present are seamlessly blurred so the reader is often left confused by the chronology of events.

The writing meanders and flows like a river but there is always an undercurrent of danger present, keeping the reader off balance.

Who knew fishing could be so dangerous?

After an auto mechanic shop opens in the main character's backyard, he embarks on an increasingly desperate series of attempts to get some peace from many varieties of noise in modernizing 1950s South American society. It's not as slapstick as it sounds - more like a very long short story with weird character quirks. You feel bad for the guy, but he also reveals himself to be a bit of an oddball, so that adds another dimension to the mix.

A novel based on real events, written in a non-fictional manner. It begins as a journalist‘s research notes from a visit to a newly surfaced archive of secret police records. But as the narrator digs deeper into the files, his access is denied and it becomes a journal of his continued investigations, leading to the discovery related to a traumatic event suffered by his mother. I didn‘t get the revelation, because I didn‘t pay attention the names.

Crime and disappearances in #Guatemala, a country where corruption is rife and income disparities are breathtaking. I have read the first 2/3 of this novel by one of the best-known contemporary Guatemalan authors, and am loving it so far.

Photo of lake Atitlán (which features in the story) by FerociousFlaherty via wikimedia

I checked this book out from my library so I could post some of the best parts (I read the audiobook). This is one of my favorite “stories.”

This is a book of stories, no doubt, but the vast majority are a minute or shorter! Less than a handful are 3 or fewer minutes. It could be hard to grasp some of it since they are so short and I listened to it rather than read it. But some “stories” were so profound, I‘m going to have to find the IRL book. The author was from #Uruguay but he shared morsels from all over the world: quotes, news, history, thoughts. But I did love his references ⬇️

Tagged. If he were alive and I could manage to schedule Thanksgiving dinner with him, it‘d be a fascinating conversation. I can‘t wait to review this book.

Who‘d you have dinner with?

My next audiobook is for #Uruguay for #readingtheAmericas @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

One of my last two books for this challenge!

At the start, I was rather unconvinced by this novella, but the more I read the more engaged I was. I'll have to google all the Chilean writers mentioned because apart from Neruda, I couldn't place them.

The picture of Santiago de Chile in winter with the Andes in the background I found on Wikipedia felt fitting...

#FoodandLit #Chile
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

"Still, giving up writing and reading, abandoning my work and my books, would leave me without any consolation. It would be like giving up life itself." p.17

#deweysreadathon