An uncompromisingly honest collection of short stories, examining with unique perspicacity the missteps, mistakes and misunderstandings that define our lives.
Pride and disgrace.
Nostalgia and revenge.
Tenderness and seduction.
From the dusty backstreets of Santiago and the sun-baked alleyways of impoverished fishing villages to the dark stairwells of urban apartment blocks, Paulina Flores paints an intimate picture of a world in which the shadow of humiliation, of delusion, seduction and sabotage, is never far away. This is a Chile we seldom see in fiction.
With an exceptional eye for human fragility, with unfailing insight and extraordinary tenderness, Humiliation is a mesmerising collection from a rising star of South American literature, translated from the Spanish by Man Booker International Prize finalist Megan McDowell.
‘In this impressive debut, nimbly translated by Megan McDowell, Flores explores the indignities of poverty, widespread in her native Chile… Like Alice Munro, Flores sparks empathy with a careful attention to details. Humanity, she makes clear, is bound together by a shared vulnerability.’
'An exceptional debut - beautifully translated by Megan McDowell - from one of Latin America's most exciting young writers.'
‘I was struck by the maturity and richness of Humiliation… [the stories] show a side of Chile that is very relevant in the current political climate of the country’.
'It’s still rare to encounter a debut with a grip this sure. Young Chilean writer Paulina Flores leads you with such cool confidence through her nine stories that I can’t wait to follow wherever she goes next... Masterly.'
'Every once in a while one encounters a new voice and thinks: they will last.'
'An incredible storyteller. Paulina Flores has a knack for laying bare those fragile, often inarticulated, often hard to pin down emotions children hold for their parents.'
'Chilean writer Flores’ debut short story collection has garnered critical acclaim in its Spanish-language edition, winning several awards, including the Roberto Bolaño Prize. Now McDowell presents an agile translation... With conflicts personal and communal in a land in the grip of tyranny, Flores dramatizes difficult situations vividly specific and resonantly universal.'
'Until the protests, nobody outside of Chile was talking about how one percent of its inhabitants take home one third of the income generated in the entire country. The fearless, clear-eyed stories of Paulina Flores offer a portal into what living in that extreme inequality means.'
'Written with the possessive, disquieting calm of contemporaries like Catherine Lacey and Richard Chiem, Humiliation is a dazzling debut from a woman within full command of her craft.'
'Winner of multiple awards, including the Roberto Bolaño Prize, Humiliation is an intensely political debut... The thing that these nine stories share most prominently is longing. For change. For approval. For affection.'
'A masterful collection of uncommon stories'
'Flores has won several prizes in her native Chile, and it's not hard to see why: her prose (deftly translated by McDowell) is fluid and assured... This collection marks the arrival of an interesting young writer.'
Paulina Flores was born in Chile in 1988. In 2014, she won the Roberto Bolaño Short Story Prize for her story “Qué vergüenza” (Humiliation). Her collection of the same title was published to great acclaim in Chile in 2015. She is a laureate of the Chilean Art Critics Circle Prize for Best New Fiction.
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