Chilean Poet is a warm, soulful, hilarious novel about fatherhood, family, and of course, Chilean poetry. The tale begins with Gonzalo and Carla, who fizzle out after an awkward teenage fling in 1991, only to reunite 9 years later at a steamy Santiago night-club. Gonzalo, by now a frustrated poet and academic, moves in with Carla and her 6-year-old son Vicente, who quickly wins a spot in his heart. We follow the three of them along with their cat, Darkness, through the everyday trials and wins of family life, and what is the most tender portrait of the particularities of step-fatherhood I’ve read. Carla and Gonzalo separate, but Gonzalo leaves behind an indelible love for poetry in Vicente.
Fast-forward another 9 years and a dreamy 18-year-old Vicente yearns to travel and write and fall in love, and refuses to go to university until education is free. Unlike Carla and Gonzalo, Vicente hasn’t grown up under Pinochet, and refuses to assume the trauma of his parents’ generation. One night he meets Pru, a lost American journalist, and urges her to chart the lesser-known poets of Chile. Her research takes her into the homes and parties and beds of an eccentric crowd of writers, forming a lively montage of Chile’s literary scene. When Pru heads home to New York, the story circles back to Vicente and Gonzalo - two beloved characters we long to see reunite.
This is the perfect winter warmer to laugh and cry over - light-hearted, meaningful, and filled with characters you wish you could meet. Without a doubt my favourite book of 2022 so far.
