Erotic and erudite, tender and wise, this novel tumbles through Chilean literary history via an intimate portrait of a young artist's yearnings; it will delight every lover and poet alike. -- Preti Taneja

A very funny, warm and beautiful novel -- Sheila Heti

His clever irony, his lighthearted yet powerful prose, his gift for capturing this life that passes through and yet still escapes us - everything Zambra has already put into practice in his novellas and short stories explodes with vitality in Chilean Poet. Contemporary, ingenious, magnificent -- Samanta Schweblin, author of - Little Eyes

Every beat and pattern of being alive becomes revelatory and bright when narrated by Alejandro Zambra. He is a modern wonder -- Rivka Galchen, author of - Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch

Zambra writes with wit and warmth, and his characters are penned with compassion and humour... An uplifting and at times laugh-out-loud read -- Jo Lateu - New Internationalist

[Chilean Poet] treats the thorny topic of collective identity not as tragedy, but as a familial comedy. Its laughs are forged across languages - New York Times Book Review

A tender and funny story about love, family and the peculiar position of being a stepparent ... [Chilean Poet] broadens the author's scope and quite likely his international reputation - Los Angeles Times

Splendid . . . [it has] one of the best endings to a novel that I have read in years, a scene of beautiful emotional improvisation - Wall Street Journal

The thing that has always made Zambra's writing irresistible (to me, anyway) is his attention to the seemingly inconsequential matters that render our lives so flush with consequence... wonderfully original -- Il'ja Rákoš - The Millions

[Zambra is] an artist who does not simply notate the numbing details of daily life but spins the quotidian into art - Vulture

...cleareyed and tender - Kirkus Reviews

Excruciatingly funny... a highly entertaining, engaging and complex detailing of why words matter -- translated fiction round-up by Michael Cronin - The Irish Times

So convincing, so tenderly wrought, and so laugh-out-loud funny, that one begins to suspect Chilean Poet might be the best thing [Zambra has] ever written... it is, in short, a complete joy -- Jane Graham - Big Issue

A heartwarming comedy about parenthood and poetry... deft, poignant and emotionally acute -- Houman Barekat - FT

Superb... [Zambra is] one of the sharpest writers in Spanish today... Chilean Poet, happily, is accomplished at all it does -- Cal Revely-Calder - Sunday Telegraph

The pursuit of a poetic life becomes the vehicle for a wry and poignant story of masculine self-discovery ... A sharp-eyed, warm-hearted modern-family romance in the vein of a David Nicholls or Nick Hornby from the Southern Cone... [a] genial, shrewd and tender novel -- Boyd Tonkin - ArtsDesk

In this profound, at times absurd and often very funny investigation of family and failure, Zambra proves himself to be an important voice in contemporary Latin American literature - Monocle

Alejandro Zambra was born in Santiago, Chile in 1975. He is the author of two books of poems, Bahía Inútil and Mudanza; a collection of essays, No leer; and three novels, Bonsái, which was awarded a Chilean Critics Award for best novel, The Private Lives of Trees, and Ways of Going Home, which was awarded the Altazor Prize, selected by The National Book Council as the best Chilean novel published during 2012, and won an English Pen Award. He was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists and was elected to the Bogotá39 list.

Megan McDowell is an awardwinning Spanish-language translator from Kentucky. She has translated books by Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, Mariana Enríquez and Lina Meruane, among others, and her short story translations have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Harper's and Tin House. She lives in Santiago, Chile.