Eucalyptus (Trade Paper)

Description

An Amazon.ca Best Book of 2013: Top 100/Editors PickCaptivating . . . a story of blood, hatred, vengeance, and politics.Radio-CanadaAlberto Ventura has travelled to Chile to attend the funeral of his father, Roberto. A man hated and loved both by his family and the local people, Roberto was known in the village as an enigma, a rake, a controversial boss, and a quick-tempered thug. Its said that he has destroyed the family land by mass-farmingeucalyptus trees, and hes known to have killed a local boy in a fit of rage. Yet as Alberto delves into the rumours that obscure his fathers deathwas it natural causes, vengeance, murder, or self-sacrifice?he finds the reputation at stake is his own.In a breath-catching story of race and identity, rife with Chiles centuries-old tension between natives and local landowners, Mauricio SegurasEucalyptusinvestigates the flashpoint of one village community in an expanding world.Praise forEucalyptusWell-executed, with a cinematic quality and keen visual sense Segura locates the political through the personal in a way that is uncommon.Stephen Sparks, Green Apple BooksA solid novelist of infallible instincts.LActualitSegura writes with a poetic economy of language, using very few words to create meaningful images Winklers masterful translation is so seamless, readers will think that the novel was written in English Seguras novel and his original voice are important additions to the Canadian canon.Publishers WeeklyAn adventurous, hypnotic read.Ben Woodard,Numro CinqThe book, originally written in French, is about a Chilean-Canadian man who has returned to his native country to bury his father. Perhaps this international hopscotch begins to describe the magic I felt when openingEucalyptus a beautiful book.A Geography of ReadingBriskly paced The short novel reflects on the vital relation of exile (from ones country, as well as ones past) to such redemptive modes as love, atonement, and belonging. The fulfillment of Albertos quest to understand his father squares with Seguras strong affirmation of charity and compassion, virtues capable of healing troubled pasts.The Montreal Review of BooksAbly translated, well-paced, teeming with interesting characters that often speak for whole chapters, and written in a prose that is both lucid and hallucinatory,Eucalyptusis a remarkable, thought-provoking novel with the accessibility of a page-turner.The Rover