© Gonzalo Donoso
Alejandra Costamagna
Alejandra Costamagna was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1970. She is the author of four novels, four collections of short stories, and an anthology of newspaper columns. Her work has been translated into Italian, Korean and French, and since 2010, she has been a member of the editorial committee for the Chilean independent publishing house Cuneta. She lives in Santiago de Chile. The Touch System is her first novel to appear in English, and was a finalist for the 2018 Herralde Prize.
Titles by Alejandra Costamagna
Alejandra Costamagna
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman
PEN Translation Prize, Longlisted
Cat sitter, insomniac, former schoolteacher. Ania worries she is a “stand-in occupant,” a substitute in her own life. When she receives a request from her father to visit her dying uncle Agustín in Argentina, she makes the long journey across the Andes from Chile to Campana, where her family immigrated from Italy. Her trip, one she used to make every summer with her father, will be an escape from the present and a journey to the borders of memory.
What follows is an ambitious portrait of alienation and belonging, and of two families and countries separated by a range of mountains. Threaded together with encyclopedia entries, pages from an old immigrant manual, typing class exercises, half-faded photos, and letters mailed between continents, The Touch System introduces Alejandra Costamagna as one of the most powerful and subtle writers in contemporary Latin American literature.