Chiquitita by Pedro Carmona-Alvarez

‘Captures the heartbreak of loss and the resilience of hope . . . unforgettable’ Service95

A tender story of civil war and displacement from a prize-winning novelist who left Chile for Norway as a child refugee.

I’m frightened of my dreams, of everything I don’t know, but also of everything I know.

Marisol’s country is collapsing. A military coup sends the five-year-old and her family fleeing into the night. They seek shelter in a refugee camp where her parents try to protect her from danger while they await asylum.

Marisol spends her adult life trying to cope with the memories from her childhood: the aunts and uncles she left behind, the friends whose names she no longer recalls. But when her boyfriend wants to learn more about her past, she finds herself confronting the trauma that haunts her.

Chiquitita is a tender novel about flight and exile, the passing of time, and the experiences that remain with us, refusing erasure.

'An unusual and astonishing novel . . . Chiquitita is a stunning achievement' Irish Times

Nominated for the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature