Extinct

The girls occupy a visitor’s cottage on the side of the large family home. Marianela reckons it is as big as or bigger than her own house. She is not intimidated by wealth; on the contrary, she is prejudiced. You can’t be rich, intelligent, pretty and happy. There must be something wrong with these people, and she thinks she knows it. Since she has been dealing with upper-class girls, she finds them vain, shallow. Most of them only want to get married and have children to repeat, in time, the life of their parents. Lives based on the family and the social. This is not enough for Marianela, she expects more of herself. She knows from her grades that she will be able to study whatever she wants. Medicine or engineering. A career that offers her the best possible future: travel, financial well-being and the man she chooses to marry. She is not going to repeat anyone else’s story. Having overcome the shortcomings of the present, she will set out on a path of her own.

This volume rescues five stories of women who still live in our memories because they were part of a recent everyday life in Chile and much of Latin America. Their protagonists are, therefore, extinct or on the verge of extinction: the spinster who still lives with her mother; the maid who sacrifices her freedom and her family to look after someone else’s family; the girl with an unknown father, discriminated against since she was a child; the free woman who experiences love without prejudice; and the grandmother, who hides treats and unspeakable secrets. Five endearing, realistic stories, with touches of humour and an agile pen.

Key points

• Stories of women we all know because they are part of the recent past.
• A feminine book that invites us to reflect on the discrimination that women have suffered, but in a subtle, non-vindictive way.
• Simple narratives, easy to read and full of fine humour.

Alicia Fenieux

2018 – 12rd North Texas Book Festival, second place in Short Fiction category
2016 – National Book and Reading Council of Chile, Best Unpublished Novel Award
2011 – Santiago Municipal Literature Award, Honourable Mention in Short stories category