Novel set in USA, LONDON, PARIS
Ten Great Books set in CHILE
6th August 2024
Ten great books set in Chile, a long, narrow country stretching along South America’s western coast offering a diverse landscape.
The arid Atacama Desert in the north contrasts sharply with the lush green valleys and snow-capped Andes in the south. Santiago, the vibrant capital, blends modern skyscrapers with colonial charm.
Outdoor enthusiasts find paradise in Patagonia’s glaciers, fjords, and mountains, while surfers flock to the Pacific coast’s world-class waves. Chile’s rich culture, influenced by indigenous Mapuche traditions and European heritage, is evident in its art, music, and cuisine. From the mysterious Easter Island to the energy of Santiago, Chile captivates with its contrasts and natural beauty.
Many great books are set in this captivating country. Here are ten of our favourites.
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
A magnificent sweeping tale from the international bestselling author of ‘The House of the Spirits’.
Set in Anglophile Chile and goldrush California during the middle years of the nineteenth century, this magnificent romance tells the story of English foundling Eliza Sommers who grows up in the bustling entrepot of Valparaiso. Eliza is a spirited, sparky and ambitious romantic who becomes embroiled in a forbidden love affair with the charismatic but capricious Joaquin Andieta. When he disappears suddenly for California, and the promise of riches that rumours of gold strikes have brought him, she can but follow after him…
The Lonely Hearts Travel Club (Destination Chile) by Katy Colins
Georgia has just been offered the opportunity of a lifetime! She’ll be starring in a TV adventure travel show that will put her and Ben’s business well and truly on the map.
But Georgia’s not quite sure their relationship is ready to be put under the microscope – because even though they survived their first argument the discovery of a sparkling engagement ring in Ben’s suitcase has put Georgia’s head in a spin! Are they really ready for marriage? And more importantly, after all the heartbreak, is she?
This journey is sure to be an adventure like no other. Against the backdrop of rugged and wild Chile, Ben and Georgia must decide if their love is worth fight for…
Swedish Tango by Alyson Richman
Octavio Ribeiro is a rising movie star in Chile when, at the request of famed poet Pablo Neruda, he agrees to serve as a media trainer in the presidential campaign of Salvador Allende. This involvement exposes Octavio and his family — especially his wife, Salomé — to the ruthless kidnapping and terror tactics of Allende’s political rival, General Augusto Pinochet…until they escape to political exile in Sweden, where another couple — Samuel and Kaija Rudin — are also living as expatriates. Dr. Rudin is a psychiatrist specializing in treating people who, like Salomé, have been traumatized by the events of war and upheaval. As the Rudins and Ribeiros dance with destiny, each family must confront the secrets they have kept from one another — and face the personal consequences of their political choices. Rich with historical detail, and written in shimmering prose, Swedish Tango is an epic tale of two cultures that no reader will soon forget.
By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño
During the course of a single night, Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean priest, who is a member of Opus Dei, a literary critic and a mediocre poet, relives some of the crucial events of his life. He believes he is dying and in his feverish delirium various characters, both real and imaginary, appear to him as icy monsters, as if in sequences from a horror film.
Thus we are given glimpses of the great poet Pablo Neruda, the German writer Ernst Junger, General Pinochet, whom Father Lacroix instructs in Marxist doctrine, as well as various members of the Chilean intelligentsia whose lives, during a period of political turbulence, have touched upon his.
Atacama by Joe Moss
Four carefree twenty-somethings. A desolate desert in Chile. An ancient Incan curse. The Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth, is home to many exotic customs and primitive traditions—as well as deadly curses. When reckless Dai removes an ancient tomahawk from an Incan burial chamber in the desert, he and his friends are overcome with a sudden unease. Soon, they find they are leaving unthinkable violence and death in their wake.
Something is after them. Is it a demented and dangerous person pursuing them? Or is it an ageless evil—the curse of the Incas? Will Dai and his friends make it out of the Atacama with their lives?
Atacama is an intelligent blend of fantasy and horror that will have you on the edge of your seat.
Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez
In 1973, the portly, dark-haired, bearded film director Miguel Littín fled Chile after a U.S.-supported military coup toppled the democratically elected Socialist government of Salvador Allende, replacing it with the rule of General Augusto Pinochet.
Pinochet’s cruel reign was to last some seventeen years, during which Chile was turned into a laboratory for the economic ideas of Milton Friedman, leading to a society where the rich became richer and the poor much poorer, and the government was sustained by an ongoing reign of terror.
In 1985, Littín returned to Chile, now slim and clean-shaven, with a false name, false passport, and false wife. Pretending to be a Uruguayan businessman, he was bent on making a movie that told the truth about life under Pinochet. This is the story of Littín’s escapade, which was a journey to a risky and in many ways unexpected new country-and into his own complicated feelings as an exile.
Gabriel García Márquez brings all his gifts as a novelist to the telling Littín’s tale, revealing the unreal essence of life in a country where the plain truth was inadmissible. Clandestine in Chile is a true-life adventure story and a classic of modern reportage.
Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán, Sophie Hughes (Translator)
Clean begins with an inescapable fact: a girl has died. Told by Estela, a maid to a wealthy, middle class family who speaks to us from a locked room, we hear of her plight and the circumstances that led to this moment. As we enter into her account of her daily existence, we see how her apparently simple life begins to sour, but would that drive her to the unthinkable?
Disturbing and profound, Clean explores domestic work, class and violence, against the backdrop of Chile’s changing political landscape. This is one of the most daring and compelling thrillers in international literature.
Fear in Chile: Lives Under Pinochet by Patricia Politzer
“Like a García Márquez novel that has suddenly, horrifyingly, come to real life” (New York Newsday), Fear in Chile is an extraordinary collection of firstperson accounts of life under dictatorship. In the 1980s, shortly after Chile emerged from one of the century’s most notorious reigns of terror, Chilean journalist Patricia Politzer interviewed figures including a revolutionary activist, a military leader loyal to General Augusto Pinochet, a bank clerk concerned with the status quo, the mother of one of the “disappeared,” as well as a dozen other men and women from every political position and social stratum of Chilean life. The result is a broad, vivid, yet nonideological view of modern life under military rule, about which Ariel Dorfman writes, “I can think of no better introduction to my country.”
With the October 1998 arrest of General Pinochet in Great Britain and renewed world awareness of the horrendous crimes committed during his regime, Fear in Chile, updated with a new afterword by the author that considers the recent attempts to prosecute Pinochet for human-rights violations, offers a vivid portrait of Chile’s Pinochet era.
Humiliation by Paulina Flores, Megan McDowell (translator
Pride and disgrace.
Nostalgia and revenge.
Tenderness and seduction.
From the dusty backstreets of Santiago and the sun-baked alleyways of impoverished fishing villages to the dark stairwells of urban apartment blocks, Paulina Flores paints an intimate picture of a world in which the shadow of humiliation, of delusion, seduction and sabotage, is never far away. This is a Chile we seldom see in fiction.
With an exceptional eye for human fragility, with unfailing insight and extraordinary tenderness, Humiliation is a mesmerising collection from a rising star of South American literature, translated from the Spanish by Man Booker International Prize finalist Megan McDowell.
Ten Women by Marcela Serrano
Award-winning Chilean author Marcela Serrano weaves a beautiful story about the universal connections between women.
For nine Chilean women, life couldn’t be more different. There is the teenage computer whiz confronting her sexual identity. A middle-aged recluse who prefers the company of her dog over that of most humans. A housekeeper. A celebrity television personality. A woman confronting the loneliness of old age.
Of disparate ages and races, these women represent the variety of cultural and social groups that Chile comprises. On the surface, they seem to have nothing in common…except for their beloved therapist, who brings them together. Yet as different as they all are, each woman has a story to share.
As the women tell their stories, unlikely common threads are discovered, bonds are formed, and lives are transformed. Their stories form an intricate tale of triumph, heartache, and healing that will resonate with women from all walks of life.
Enjoy your election of great books set in Chile…
Tony for the TripFiction team
Join team TripFiction on Social Media:
Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction) and BlueSky(tripfiction.bsky.social) and Threads (@tripfiction)
Please wait...
