A Love of Clones

Kira wakes up mid-morning amidst the freshness of her silky sheets. The light is dim; the blinded windows recreate the atmosphere of a sunset. As soon as she opens her eyes, she feels the weight of the newly thick lashes provided by the last follicular fertilization. She likes dense lashes with a slight bluish hue accentuating her honey-colored gaze. She allows herself to be trapped by the vestiges of sleep until the feeling of something pending forces her to wake up. “The game…” she says out loud. “Oh, and let Mel know.” The phrases get instantly recorded in her personal journal.

In a desperate attempt to transcend and never be forgotten, a diva of the years 2000, Cuinsara, chooses to clone herself. Her “replica daughters”, Kira and Mel, inherit not only her dazzling beauty, but also the traumas, memories and even the experiences of the actress. In addition, they must fight to fit into the world of humans. That´s when the rivalries between the three powerful protagonists appear. One clone will try to emulate her mother’s talent. The other one, Kira, will be obsessed with the idea of being different and she will be part of a dangerous and secret game among billionaires willing to kill. And the diva, at the end of her existence, faces her past through the clones and realizes that recreating her own image is not synonymous of reciprocal and unconditional love.
Agile and entertaining novel described as techno-thriller. The story is set in the future and deals with topics that concern us in our daily lives. The author shows us a society that is just around the corner: a future which offers memory implants, soul restoration, long lives, eternal beauty, and a new kind of people: clones. A story that takes us to a probable future in which two identical clones, Kira and Mel, confront each other in search of their identity.

Key points

2016 – National Book and Reading Council of Chile, Best Unpublished Novel Award

• From one of the few representatives of dystopian science fiction in Chilean literature today.
• With an intelligent action plot, qualified as a techno-thriller and an interesting progression of the characters.
• A plausible narrative, with an internal coherence that admits different readings.
• Powerful women as protagonists who sustain the story.

Alicia Fenieux

2018 – 12rd North Texas Book Festival, second place in Short Fiction category
2011 – Santiago Municipal Literature Award, Honourable Mention in Short stories category