A Christmas Story
Alejandro Zambra author Megan McDowell translator Andrés Braithwaite editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Fitzcarraldo Editions
Publishing:19th Nov '26
£10.99
This title is due to be published on 19th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
What is the relationship between an author and their editor? What influence does one exert over the other? In A Christmas Story, which takes us back to Santiago de Chile at the turn of the century, we witness the formation of an invisible triangle between these two interlocutors and the text that you hold in your hands – a narrative with its beams exposed. The reader is granted the rare opportunity to observe the individual and subjective nature of this dialectic: how fragile and particular – but also how strong – it can become. In Megan McDowell’s brilliantly playful translation and interventions, the story of the relationship between a writer and his editor takes on an extra layer of meaning, revealing how conversations and doubts begin to overflow beyond the page, the text, the work itself, forging bonds that no longer cling to literature alone, but to life.
‘Now I know that an editor is a kind of older brother, who educates, protects and represses us – or perhaps, quite simply, a second father, whom we never stop loving, respecting, and fearing, even as we later challenge him and, sooner or later, in order to grow, or simply to survive, deny him as many times as necessary, until we end up stabbing him in the back – psychoanalytically speaking, of course.’
— Alejandro Zambra
‘What matters in a book happens fundamentally in that dialogue between two solitary figures: the one who writes and the one who edits.’
— Andrés Braithwaite
‘Every beat and pattern of being alive becomes revelatory and bright when narrated by Alejandro Zambra. He is a modern wonder.’
— Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch
‘The most talked-about writer to come out of Chile since Bolaño.’
— New York Times
‘Strikingly original.’
— James Wood, New Yorker
‘When I read Zambra I feel like someone’s shooting fireworks inside my head.’
— Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive
ISBN: 9781804272862
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
48 pages