The Remainder

The location is Santiago, Chile and the time is after the dictatorship that decimated the country. Felipe and Iquela are young adults who were children during those violent times. Their parents were involved in the resistance and were responsible for others being killed. People disappeared from the streets or from their homes and were never heard from again. Those remaining were those who did nothing to offend, who stayed below the notice of others. Felipe parents were killed and he was sent to be raised by his grandmother. She periodically brought him to Iquela's home to stay as she blamed her situation on Iquela's parents so the two grew up almost as brother and sister.Now that they are grown they have not grown past those days. Felipe has occasional work as a manual laborer but spends his days searching for dead bodies, his mission to account for them all to get back to ground zero. Iquela spends her days holed up in her apartment, translating for a living. Her only expeditions are the eight blocks between her apartment and her mother's home where she goes several times a week.Paloma is the daughter of German parents who were in Chile for a while during The Disappearance and then returned to Germany. Now her mother has died and Paloma has brought her to Chile to be buried. But the airline has lost her body and she comes to Iquela and Felipe for help. The three drive to a town up in the mountains where they believe the body might be found. What they find is beyond belief and a sight that sums up all the horror of the times.This novel was nominated for the International Booker Prize. It is an analogy for the violence of war and the residue that the survivors of such wars carry for life. It is a bleak volume and readers might be negatively affected by some of the images but it carries an important message. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

I really liked this book which refers to recent Chilean history. Perhaps having some knowledge of the dictatorship and the the transition to democracy is useful to understand the context. I do want to read the Spanish original to compare but I have to say that this translation reads very well, especially considering the book often refers to the nuances of language. The book jumps between characters which can at times can be hard to anchor but the descriptions of the city, exile, and the complexities of memory are very well crafted. I felt that the landscape and its spectral inhabitants have echoes of books such as Juan Rulfo's "Pedro Páramo" although this book, of course, is original and full credit to the author for her brilliant use of description and language. I highly recommend this book.