Drawings of Hiroshima

Of the day his grandfather died, Renzo Nakata remembered two things. The butterfly that entered the bedroom a few seconds after he stopped breathing. And the last words that came out of his mouth, which, strictly speaking, were only one: ‘Hiroshima, Hiroshima’. It came as no surprise to anyone that in the face of impending death, the grandfather remembered the city where he had been born and lived until his parents chose a different life on the other side of the world. For Renzo, however, those words contained something more, a sort of coded message that the grandfather had dropped as if to reveal a pending account.

The death of his grandfather awakens in the young Yasuhiro Nakata the desire to know the family history, especially after finding a letter in which he discovers another side of the old man and learns of the existence of a secret. As a result, Yasuhiro sets out on a journey that will take him from Valparaíso to Hiroshima, the place from which his grandfather emigrated ten years before the atomic disaster.
This is how Dibujos de Hiroshima begins, an endearing story that allows readers to accompany the protagonist on a journey in which he not only reconnects with his Japanese origins, but also questions his present, his interpersonal relationships, and his interest in writing, deepening his unconscious desire to understand his role in a story that is not his own and yet challenges him directly.

Key points

• A tribute to the victims and survivors of the nuclear bomb.
• A novel about the search for identity through the exploration of family roots.
• National and international award-winning author.

Marcelo Simonetti

2024 – Cuatrogatos Foundation Award
2023, 2020 – IBBY Chile Award, Children/Young Adults Poetry
2014 – Best Literary Works Award, Best Unpublished Storybook
2005 – Casa de América Award for Innovative Narrative
2003 – Santiago Municipal Literature Award