About the Book
“Hopeful, funny, and full of wisdom. A meditation on fatherhood by one of our most perceptive writers.” —Tara Westover, author of Educated
“With playfulness and sharp insight, [Zambra] turns everyday moments into something unforgettable, blending wit and heart in every page.” —Los Angeles Times
"Defies not only conventions of literary masculinity but also an entrenched, persistent vision of fatherhood as part of a man’s private rather than public life.” —The Atlantic
From the author of My Documents and Chilean Poet, a wise, humorous, and captivating literary exploration of the delights and absurdities of childhood, fatherhood, and family life
Childish Literature is a charming and wide-ranging collection of short stories, essays, and even a couple of poems produced under the influence of fatherhood, a transformative experience that reshapes and enlivens the author's relationship to aging, intimacy, and time. Written in Alejandro Zambra’s brilliantly warm, playful, and philosophical voice, these pieces explore the lives of families and their stories through a wide variety of topics—from screen time and "soccer sadness" to personal libraries, fishing, and psychedelics. Throughout, Zambra captures the texture of daily life and deep truths about how we feel and live, with particular insight into the ways parents and children challenge, enrich, and entertain each other.
Simultaneously lighthearted and profound, and brilliantly rendered by National Book Award-winning translator Megan McDowell, Childish Literature is an intimate and unclassifiable new work by an internationally celebrated writer.
About the Author :
Alejandro Zambra is the author of ten books, including Chilean Poet and Multiple Choice. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, as well as a New York Public Library Cullman Center fellowship, he has published fiction and essays in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Harper’s Magazine, among other publications. He lives in Mexico City.
Megan McDowell (translator) is the winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Translation and the recipient of a 2020 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other awards. She has been nominated four times for the International Booker Prize.
Review :
Praise for Childish Literature:
“[Childish Literature is] an expansive, relaxed meander through fatherhood, a 360-degree tour . . . It represents fatherhood as an emotional and intellectual relationship not just to a child but also to childhood, with all of the growth and exploration and confusion that entails . . . It defies not only conventions of literary masculinity but also an entrenched, persistent vision of fatherhood as part of a man’s private rather than public life. Zambra represents fatherhood as a form of participation in society.” —The Atlantic
“The author invites readers into the tender, chaotic and often hilarious world of fatherhood in this collection of essays and poems. With playfulness and sharp insight, he turns everyday moments into something unforgettable, blending wit and heart in every page.” —Los Angeles Times, De Los Reads
“These warm and caring pieces depict [Zambra's] meditations on time and mortality and tenderness, and allow the reader to witness the richness of ordinary life, the treasures found therein.” —Lit Hub
“Childish Literature is like the bouncy castle to the hard park bench of so many motherhood memoirs. . . [Zambra] is funny, filling his various experiments with deadpan jokes and self-deprecation and scenes that play up the still lowered expectations of a father with a young child.” —The New Republic
“One of Latin America’s most inventive prose writers . . . whatever the future of the fatherhood book, Childish Literature is a welcome addition to this fledgeling genre.” —The Spectator
“Pulling together a mixture of Zambra’s contained fictions and his astute prose essays, Childish Literature is an ode not just to childhood, but to having a child… Zambra declares that 'all books can be read in function of the desire to belong.' Perhaps the greatest accolade of this book is how immediately and convincingly this desire is achieved on the part of the reader… Childish Literature is an open house. It is open to all and points us towards our own personal sense of childish belonging.” —Cleveland Review of Books
“An exceptionally skilled and inventive writer, Zambra (Bonsai, 2022) takes a direct approach to documenting all the breathless joy, sleepless nights, and uncanny profundity of early fatherhood… Another excellent book by one of Chile's most important contemporary voices.” —Booklist (Starred Review)
“Zambra’s joy is contagious in this nuanced exploration of 'the mysteries of happiness.'” —Publishers Weekly
“Charming, protean, ebullient, and precise, this book transforms and grows almost as much as the parents and child at the center of the book. A wonder.” —Karan Mahajan, author of the National Book Award finalist The Association of Small Bombs
“Whenever Alejandro Zambra brings out a new book, I’m excited to read it . . . On every page there’ll be something that makes me laugh out loud, no matter if what’s being narrated is devastating or—like this new book—luminously tender. In Childish Literature, Zambra’s account of fatherhood is so generous, self-deprecating and infectious that I ended up feeling like a more attentive, entertaining and knowing first-time dad than I probably am, and a more self-forgiving one too.” —Francisco Goldman, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy
“What a rare and wonderful experience, to read a writer of such brilliance, wit and style as Alejandro Zambra on the subjects of fatherhood and childhood. I relished every page of this beautiful, surprising book.” — Mark O’Connell, author of A Thread of Violence
