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Childish Literature Audiobook
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“Hopeful, funny, and full of wisdom. A meditation on fatherhood by one of our most perceptive writers.” —Tara Westover, author of Educated
From the author of My Documents and Chilean Poet, a wise, humorous, and captivating literary exploration of the delights and absurdities of childhood, fatherhood, and family life
Childish Literature is a charming and wide-ranging collection of short stories, essays, and even a couple of poems produced under the influence of fatherhood, a transformative experience that reshapes and enlivens the author's relationship to aging, intimacy, and time. Written in Alejandro Zambra’s brilliantly warm, playful, and philosophical voice, these pieces explore the lives of families and their stories through a wide variety of topics—from screen time and "soccer sadness" to personal libraries, fishing, and psychedelics. Throughout, Zambra captures the texture of daily life and deep truths about how we feel and live, with particular insight into the ways parents and children challenge, enrich, and entertain each other.
Simultaneously lighthearted and profound, and brilliantly rendered by National Book Award-winning translator Megan McDowell, Childish Literature is an intimate and unclassifiable new work by an internationally celebrated writer.
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"Pulling together a mixture of Zambra’s contained fictions and his astute prose essays, Childish Literature is an ode not just to childhood, but to having a child… Zambra declares that 'all books can be read in function of the desire to belong.' Perhaps the greatest accolade of this book is how immediately and convincingly this desire is achieved on the part of the reader… Childish Literature is an open house. It is open to all and points us towards our own personal sense of childish belonging."
— Cleveland Review of Books
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"Hopeful, funny, and full of wisdom. A meditation on fatherhood by one of our most perceptive writers.
— Tara Westover, New York Times bestselling author of Educated -
“Whenever Alejandro Zambra brings out a new book, I’m excited to read it . . . On every page there’ll be something that makes me laugh out loud, no matter if what’s being narrated is devastating or—like this new book—luminously tender. In Childish Literature, Zambra’s account of fatherhood is so generous, self-deprecating and infectious that I ended up feeling like a more attentive, entertaining and knowing first-time dad than I probably am, and a more self-forgiving one too.
— Francisco Goldman, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy -
“Hopeful, funny, and full of wisdom. A meditation on fatherhood by one of our most perceptive writers.
— Tara Westover, New York Times bestselling author of Educated -
“Hopeful, funny, and full of wisdom. A meditation on fatherhood by one of our most perceptive writers.
— Tara Westover, New York Times bestselling author of Educated -
What a rare and wonderful experience, to read a writer of such brilliance, wit and style as Alejandro Zambra on the subjects of fatherhood and childhood. I relished every page of this beautiful, surprising book.
— Mark O’Connell, author of A Thread of Violence -
What a rare and wonderful experience, to read a writer of such brilliance, wit and style as Alejandro Zambra on the subjects of fatherhood and childhood. I relished every page of this beautiful, surprising book.
— Mark O’Connell, author of A Thread of Violence -
Zambra’s joy is contagious in this nuanced exploration of 'the mysteries of happiness.'
— Publishers Weekly -
Charming, protean, ebullient, and precise, this book transforms and grows almost as much as the parents and child at the center of the book. A wonder.
— Karan Mahajan, author of the National Book Award finalist The Association of Small Bombs -
“Whenever Alejandro Zambra brings out a new book, I’m excited to read it . . . On every page there’ll be something that makes me laugh out loud, no matter if what’s being narrated is devastating or—like this new book—luminously tender. In Childish Literature, Zambra’s account of fatherhood is so generous, self-deprecating and infectious that I ended up feeling like a more attentive, entertaining and knowing first-time dad than I probably am, and a more self-forgiving one too.
— Francisco Goldman, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy -
An exceptionally skilled and inventive writer, Zambra (Bonsai, 2022) takes a direct approach to documenting all the breathless joy, sleepless nights, and uncanny profundity of early fatherhood… Another excellent book by one of Chile's most important contemporary voices.
— Booklist (Starred Review) -
Zambra’s joy is contagious in this nuanced exploration of 'the mysteries of happiness.'
— Publishers Weekly -
Zambra’s joy is contagious in this nuanced exploration of 'the mysteries of happiness.'
— Publishers Weekly
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About Alejandro Zambra
Alejandro Zambra is the author of several books, including My Documents, a finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is the recipient of numerous literary prizes and a New York Public Library Cullman Center fellowship, and his stories have appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, the Paris Review, Granta, and Harper’s magazine, among others. He lives in Mexico City. Translator Megan McDowell is the recipient of a 2020 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been short- or long-listed four times for the International Booker Prize. She lives in Santiago, Chile.