“Undoubtedly his best novel to date. Written in a solid manner, without holes or empty spaces, with conflicted characters and without falling into stereotypes. It can be read as a coming-of-age novel, a hero’s journey novel, a period novel, a survival novel, a provincial novel, a sports novel, a memory novel. It is all of this and more. And it manages to successfully save everything it sets out to do.”

“Although the narration is simple and direct, the story in Tierra de campeones at times appears to take on the rhythm of the breath of a diver underwater: it pulses like an adventure in the moments when Chungungo is crowned champion, but it slows down during the dramatic and horrible moments until it’s submerged in mystery. It is the story of the protagonist, but at the same time it is an echo of Zúñiga’s previous novels that are also set in the North.”

“Zúñiga starts with the real story of Raúl Choque, underwater hunting world champion and Chilean legend who, according to myth, happened to discover the bodies of missing detainees at the bottom of the sea. Here, Zúñiga presents a fictional story that reads like a survival novel but also a coming-of-age one, with the makings of a sports novel that ultimately traces the hero’s journey in a magnificent memoir.”

“Diego Zúñiga is able to construct characters that are far from stereotypical, and that are instead very alive, quite unique, and able to help us open our eyes in the deep and dark waters of everyday terror...Tierra de campeones is definitively an intense work, written with language and prose that are not very common, able to wrap us in a blinding atmosphere that will inevitably leave the reader hooked on Chungungo Martínez and the other characters who traverse these pages.”

“Chilean author Diego Zúñiga’s Tierra de campeones can be classified as a great novel, and we recommend you set aside time for reading because once you start, you won’t be able to stop until you reach page 268, the final one of this novel that narrates the life of a Chilean underwater fishing world champion. Through Chungungo Martínez (inspired by Raúl Choque, the real champion in 1971), the story of a country starting in the 50s and reaching the fall of Allende unfolds. But don’t get it twisted—this isn’t a political novel (although it is political), but rather a coming-of-age novel that narrates in a way that is brutal and overwhelming. You will discover that the story is as serious as the ocean itself.”

“ A remarkable and moving novel, filled with moments of energy, moments of reflection, and images of poetic resonance in which an old Chile comes to life, with its heroes full of humanity, its language and its shortcomings, its sadness and its joys. And where the horror of the story breaks out in an unexpected and destructive way, like a fog or a devastating wave.”

“A seductive and complex text despite an apparent simplicity, Tierra de campeonescan at once be read as a coming-of-age novel, as a story of survival and solidarity, and as a portrait of a border area that reaffirms its own identity and a modest provincial pride in a centralized country like Chile.”

“Zúñiga does the natural thing for a pure writer, where the reality of his story finds the metaphor without it being intentional. Meaning, transforming Caleta Negra—a marginal place removed from the rest of the world—into a sort of life apnea. But it is precisely within that apnea that a universe is discovered. Below the water’s surface that is seemingly removed from Chile’s history in the 70s, Martínez enters an entire world that does not contain only fish. In the depths he will find bags filled with cadavers, the bodies that have been disappeared by Pinochet’s dictatorship that have been held captive by the water. And he’ll have no choice but to recount it.
Inspired by the Raúl Choque’s real story—world underwater fishing champion in 1971 in Iquique—Diego Zúñiga’s third novel is a descent into a sort of silent hell within fresh water where the silence of the apnea is a double-edged sword, both a space of its own and the brutal violence of the forced silence. One where not breathing is an option or a death sentence. Zúñiga debuted in 2009 with Camanchaca, a moving, imperfect, gorgeous novel. We find him again now with this adult novel, and it’s clear that contemporary Chile, alongside Roberto Bolaño and Alejandro Zambra, has a writer who we must continue reading.”

“Tierra de campeones bu Diego Zúñiga surprises us with a story capable of landing a blow without apparent plot twists, page after page, landing one blow after another, as is the case in many of our lives.”

“The poetry and, above all, the agility of Diego Zúñiga’s pages contrast sharply with the story’s cornerstone. (...) A book that knows how to portray an era, to talk about sports and make them into a metaphor, tell the story of a country boy’s rise, evoke the ocean, deal with death (which the protagonist escapes but will swoop in at a different time). And in each one of these dimensions, it stands out.”