Chilco A Novel
Chilco A Novel by Daniela Catrileo, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on July 15, 2025, is a work that explores themes of love, life, and friendship in a near-future setting. This 272-page narrative unfolds on Pascale’s home island of Chilco, a name that also signifies the fuchsia flower in Mapudungun, symbolizing the lushness of the tropical environment. The story follows Pascale and her partner Marina as they navigate the challenges of living in a city marked by colonial scars and the destructive forces of development, all while grappling with the fear of losing their home to environmental decay.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of experiences as Marina confronts the decay surrounding her, both in the physical landscape and in her personal relationships. The narrative delves into the complexities of escaping a collapsing city, questioning whether they are truly finding refuge or merely stepping into a new form of oppression. Catrileo weaves indigenous Mapudungun and Quechua language and history throughout the text, creating a vivid backdrop for this exploration of memory and identity amidst the wounds inflicted by capitalism and empire. Chilco presents a unique blend of literary and magical realism, inviting readers to reflect on the intertwined fates of people and land.
Official synopsis Publisher
A near-future fable about love, life, and friendship in a world that’s coming apart.
Chilco is the name of Pascale’s home island. It is also the Mapudungun word for fuchsia: a word that evokes tropical lushness, wetness, the deep greenness of the forest. Pascale’s partner, Marina, grew up in the vertical slums of Capital City, a place scarred by centuries of colonialism and now the ravages of feckless developers. Every day the couple fear a sinkhole will open up and take with it another poor neighborhood, another raft of desperate refugees from the hinterlands: the indigenous, the poor, who are toiling for an all-consuming machine that is devouring the earth from beneath their feet.
When they finally flee the collapsing city to live in Chilco, are they escaping from the crushing weight of centuries of colonial repression that have eroded indigenous memories, language, and culture, or are they merely stepping into a twisted, lush new version of it? From her first days in this place where she’s supposed to feel safe and at home, Marina can’t avoid the feeling that everything is decaying around her—there is a smell of putrefaction in the air that no one except her can detect; there are seismic rifts that the political cruelties of the times have opened up in her own relationship with Pascale; and she is haunted by insistent memories of her past.
In Chilco, Daniela Catrileo’s baroque, tropical jeremiad, the wounds of capitalism and empire inflict themselves on the person and on the land, but linger most devastatingly in language and memory. Indigenous Mapudungun and Quechua words, history, and cosmology form the chorus to this tropical fever dream of life, love, death, and friendship.
Publisher
Topics
FAQ
What is “Chilco A Novel” about?
Who is the author of “Chilco A Novel”?
When was “Chilco A Novel” published?
What is the ISBN for “Chilco A Novel”?
What are the book details (language, pages, edition)?
