Pedro the Vast

‘A heady and thrilling sci-fi debut … colorfully satiric … The plot simmers with violence, including fierce sibling rivalry and political turmoil as Chile is engulfed in protests … but Trujillo’s careful attention to detail and Myers’s smooth translation makes it go down easy.’

* Publishers Weekly *

‘An inspired mycelial novel that is as propulsive as it is unsettling. Myers shines in her translation of fever dream while López Trujillo, with the eccentric darkness of much of the best contemporary Latin American literature, hypnotises and haunts.’

-- Jennifer Croft, translator and author of The Extinction of Irena Rey

‘This short, intense novel … is speculative fiction about an ominous change to human life as we know it in the wake of ecological destruction … Told through alternating viewpoints, moving between conscious and unconscious experience … it is an unsettling, hallucinogenic trip that lingers in the mind.’

-- Lisa Tuttle * The Guardian *

‘The Last of Us meets The Metamorphosis in Chilean author Simón López Trujillo’s newly translated novel, which smuggles trenchant social critique into an eco-thriller.’

-- Ryan Coleman * News Writer *

‘In Pedro the Vast, Simón Trujillo channels the elements of an eco-horror thriller into a spellbinding symphony of otherness. Visionary, disturbing, and at times incredibly sensual, Pedro the Vast confounded my expectations and left me entangled in a feverish world of the mycelial, the alien, and the sublime.’

-- Ryka Aoki, author of Light From Uncommon Stars

‘Melodious, innovative, and delightfully surreal, the multiple distinct voices of Pedro the Vast weave a story that pushes at our duties to the earth, our families, and communities, that exposes the heartbreaking dystopia of our present. Simón’s atmospheric prose fully dunked me into this story of the linked lives of Chileans.’

-- Pemi Aguda, author of the National Book Award finalist Ghostroots

‘We needed this and it’s here: Simón is producing a mutant literature, a literature that ensures that human flesh is not made of humanity but of myriad other beings. Mind-blowing.’

-- Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Adventures of China Iron

‘Lucid and beautifully written, lyrical yet direct. It gathers unforgettable words and images, transporting us to the open (opening) wound in our vast and devastated land. An exceptional debut.’

-- Alia Trabucco Zerán, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Clean

‘So unbelievably wild and gorgeous, Pedro the Vast sucked me in completely. The fungus, the voices, the scientist on her quest, the girl with her cats, the footnotes, the language, Pedro himself, his lost son — all of it is riveting. A spectacular read.’

-- Sierra Greer, author of Annie Bot

‘Pedro the Vast is a terrifying speculative thriller in the vein of Jeff Vandermeer and Samanta Schweblin, perfect for readers who want to be horrified in the most satisfying way possible.’

* Chicago Review of Books *

‘A short novel that simmers and then sears … stunning [and] brilliantly perspective-altering.’

* Locus Magazi