Bonsai is the story of Julio and Emilia, two young Chilean students who, seeking truth in great literature, find each other instead. Like all young couples,they lie to each other, revise themselves, and try new identities on for size, observing and analyzing their love story as if it’s one of the great novels theyboth pretend to have read. As they shadow each other throughout their youngadulthoods, falling together and drifting apart, Zambra spins a formally innovative, metafictional tale that brilliantly explores the relationship among love,art, and memory.

‘The last truly great book I read has to be Alejandro Zambra’s Bonsai. A subtle, eerie, ultimately wrenching account of failed young love in Chile … A total knockout.’ - Junot Daz