Los parientes pobres
Rafael Gumucio
NOVEL | 2024 | 248 pages
Eleven brothers exchange messages about the situation regarding their father, who in his old age is forging scandalous connections and exhibiting behavior that doesn’t only put his numerous children’s affections to the test, but also spark each one’s memories and obstinacies, leaving room for the manifestation—emphatic, fun, exasperating—of their differences, debts, and the grudges they hold.
In Los parientes pobres, by intertwining voices and deftly switching between perspectives, Rafael Gumucio offers us a novel where the fresco that he has been creating for three decades about the modes of establishing relationships in Chile finds one of its tallest peaks. The story of a fallen patriarch that is also the story of lost generations, a comedy that is also a drama, a competition of voices that get confused and distanced, that search for each other and laugh at each other until finding each other or separating forever.
RIGHTS: spanish PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
“Los parientes pobres is a Donoso-style fresco of a Chilean family. But Gumucio incorporates what is so characteristic of his writing—levity, irony, and humor. With this tone, he dissects fragments of life, constructing atmospheres and demonstrating a dazzling harmony with the characters.”
“With Los parientes pobres, Rafael Gumucio offers what is perhaps his best novel, emotional and tender, with a complex topic that is handled subtly and a narrative that has a clever and well-resolved structure and technique.”
“Once again, Rafael Gumucio writes about the disorder of families, starting with the archetypal figure of the upper-class impoverished Chilean artist, held together by a tragic echo to a long bloodline to feed, and that often doesn’t even nourish, care, or provide company. A story that is solvent and sharp.”
BY RAFAEL GUMUCIO:
Los parientes pobres
NOVEL, 2024
Hotel Montana y otros cuentos
STORIES, 2021
Nicanor Parra, rey y mendigo
NON FICTION, 2018/2020
¿Por qué soy católico?
NON FICTION, 2019
La Edad Media
NOVEL, 2017
El galán imperfecto
NOVEL, 2017
Contra la inocencia
ESSAY, 2016
Milagro en Haití
ESSAY, 2015
Mi abuela, Marta Rivas González
NOVEL, 2013
Contra la belleza
ESSAY, 2010
La situación. Crónicas literarias
ESSAY, 2010
La deuda
NOVEL, 2009
Páginas coloniales
ESSAY, 2005
Los platos rotos
ESSAY, 2013
Monstruos cardinales
ESSAY, 2002
Comedia nupcial
NOVEL, 2002
Memorias prematuras
NOVEL, 1999
Invierno en la torre
STORIES, 1996