Congratulations to Alia Trabucco Zerán and Sophie Hughes!
Coffee House Press is celebrating The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán, translated by Sophie Hughes, which was named one of six finalists for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize at a ceremony and reception in London on Tuesday.
“A lyrical evocation of Chile’s lost generation, trying ever more desperately to escape their parents’ political shadow.” —Man Booker International Judges
“It is a book about a trip made by three friends to the other side of the Andean mountains in order to look for and bury a body. That is, a delirious, sad, mad trip, but also a necessary one, which I wrote with both my personal history and that of my country in mind.” —Alia Trabucco Zerán
In two distinct voices, The Remainder presents a new way of writing about Chile’s dictatorial past, not narrated by the regime’s main protagonists, but by the next generation who inherits their wounds. When a the body of a loved one gets lost in transit, three friends embark on a pisco-fueled journey up the cordillera in a hearse, driven to confront a pain that stretches across generations.
Published by And Other Stores in the U.K., The Remainder will be released by Coffee House Press in the U.S. on August 6th, 2019. The winner of the prize will be announced on May 21st.
For more on The Remainder and its place on the Man Booker International list, read this interview with Alia and Sophie on the Man Booker’s site. You can find “A Bitter Pill,” Alia’s newly released short story, at Words Without Borders. And make sure to preorder your own copy of the book for its U.S. release in August!