Spiritual Choreographies

By blinking his eyes and moving his pupils, a paraplegic man―the onetime vocalist in a famous rock band―composes a kind of anti-biography that is corrected and expanded upon by an unknown editor. Alternating between the vocalist’s impressionistic recollections and the editor’s “corrections,” an asynchronous story emerges, evoking the vocalist’s childhood in southern Chile and telling of the rise and fall of the band that he grew up to lead, while hinting at a multiplicity of other narrative possibilities.

Carlos Labbé, one of Granta's "Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists," was born in Chile and is the author of seven novels, including Navidad & Matanza and Loquela, and three collections of short stories. In addition to his writings he is a musician, and has released three albums. He is a co-editor at Sangria, a publishing house based in Santiago and Brooklyn, where he translates and runs workshops. He also writes literary essays, the most notable ones on Juan Carlos Onetti, Diamela Eltit and Roberto Bolaño. Three of his novels are available from Open Letter Books.

Will Vanderhyden received an MA in Literary Translation Studies from the University of Rochester. He has translated fiction by Carlos Labbé, Edgardo Cozarinsky, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Juan Marsé, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, Rodrigo Fresán, and Elvio Gandolfo. He received NEA and Lannan fellowships to translate Rodrigo Fresán's novel, The Invented Part, which won the 2018 Best Translated Book Award.