Winner of Chile's Literary Critics' Award for Best Novel "A truly sublime novella . . . Zambra turns sentiment and nostalgia into occasions for humor, vulnerability and truth by deploying a frank specificity. There are no canned phrases in Zambra . . . There's a dreamy associative quality of [
Bonsai] that made it feel true and beautiful and moving." –Brandon Taylor,
The New York Times Book Review "Lively, often funny and aphoristic . . . [
Bonsai] holds stories within stories." –James Wood,
The New Yorker "Readers who consider Roberto Bolaño the pole star of contemporary Chilean fiction will be jolted by Zambra's little book . . . Zambra is indeed the herald of a new wave of Chilean fiction."
–The Nation "A subtle, eerie, ultimately wrenching account of failed young love . . . A total knockout." –Junot Díaz,
The New York Times Book Review "
Bonsai has been praised the world over . . . this is the perfect time to discover (or re-discover) it. Not a single word is wasted in this powerful, elegantly told story . . . unforgettable." –
LitHub "Deceptively simple, this profound tale of ephemeral love will, despite the brevity of the telling, haunt you." –
Bonsai "A highly original work, full of unforgettable sparks of humor . . . brief as a sigh and forceful as a blow." –
El Capital "A literary creation of the highest order . . .
Bonsai is an exquisitely articulated work . . . an unclassifiable object of unusual beauty . . . one of the two or three best Chilean novels of recent times." –
Las Últimas Noticias "[U]ndeniably fascinating . . . the kind of story that lingers in the mind for weeks after being read." –
The Quarterly Conversation "What is remarkable about Zambra's novella is the space between ending and beginning–the progressive prose that relates a true story with emotional and artistic implications extending far beyond its concise pages." –
Bookslut "Bonsai is an appealing miniature, a novella that, despite its brevity, feels airy and full ... an enjoyable, pleasantly surprising, and clever read." –
The Complete Review "It is often said of a book that it is worth reading; rarely, as in [
Bonsai's] case, will it be enjoyed even more in its rereading."– ABC España
"[
Bonsai] is literature of the best kind, a work of strange maturity that makes brevity one of its greatest virtues, due to how much can be said and above all suggested in so few pages." –
El Mercurio
