My Documents

Description

The first story collection by the internationally celebrated writer Alejandro Zambra, a book that “burn[s] brighter than most anything we’d call exceptional, yesterday or today and in any language” (NPR)—now reissued by Penguin

In this beloved and critically acclaimed collection, Alejandro Zambra offers eleven stories that capture life in Chile before and after Pinochet, a catalog of the peculiar and powerful associations that shape our relationships, our identities, and our lives. The effect is that of a novel in eleven parts, each one uncannily captivating, formerly residing in an innocuous desktop folder titled “My Documents.”

Intimate and playful, inventive and profound, My Documents is one of Zambra’s finest achievements: a book that exudes boundless wit and impeccable style and that is a testament to the necessity of literature even—and especially—in times of political crisis.Alejandro Zambra is the author of ten books, including Chilean Poet; Multiple Choice; and My Documents, a finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, as well as a New York Public Library Cullman Center fellowship, his stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Harper’s Magazine, among other publications. He lives in Mexico City.

Megan McDowell (translator) is the recipient of a 2020 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other awards, and has been nominated four times for the International Booker Prize.US