Books by Francisco Coloane
“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...
Natascha Scott-Stokes, Travel Writer
Interviews where books by Francisco Coloane were recommended
The best books on Chile, recommended by Natascha Scott-Stokes
Chile is a country of extremes says travel writer and translator Natascha Scott-Stokes, who has lived there for nearly two decades. She chooses five books that give a good sense of the country, from a novel by one of Chile’s great writers, to the biography of the folk singer who was brutally murdered after the 1973 military coup.
