Cape Horn and Other Stories from the End of the World

“His short stories are absolutely brilliant. It’s a terrible shame that Anglophone readers have mostly never heard of him because he deserves to be a lot better known in the English-speaking world. It’s this old problem of translation. He’s been translated much more into French and German and Italian, so he’s much better known in continental Europe. He’s been referred to as the Jack London of South America. Or the Herman Melville. His father was a ship’s captain in a whaling station. He grew up on the island of Chiloé, in a very remote place. In his 20s, instead of going to university or college, he worked on a sheep station in Patagonia. So he really knows what he’s talking about. If you want to get a sense of the harsh life in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego at the end of the South American continent, then his stories really hit home. They’re not just about the harshness of the environment, but also the extraordinary human characters who come to a place like that and find a way to survive.” Read more...

The best books on Chile

Natascha Scott-Stokes, Travel Writer