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The Twilight Zone

A Novel
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Set in 1984 Chile, amid Pinochet's dictatorship, The Twilight Zone follows a child who first encounters the face of a secret policeman known for torture. As the narrator grows into a writer and documentarian, they wrestle with the legacy of historical crimes and the power of testimony. Nona Fernández imaginatively explores the shadowy intersections of everyday life and brutal regime violence, questioning how truth is shaped and erased by history.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3499

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

The Twilight Zone is suitable for readers interested in historical fiction, Latin American history, human rights, and narratives that blend memory with imaginative inquiry. It is best for mature young adults and adults who appreciate literary fiction engaging with political themes.

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An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space Invaders.

An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space Invaders.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space Invaders.

It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández's mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man's face on the magazine's cover with the words "I Tortured People." His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime and his commitment to speaking about them haunt the narrator into her adulthood and career as a writer and documentarian.

Like a secret service agent from the future, through extraordinary feats of the imagination, Fernández follows the "man who tortured people" to places that archives can't reach, into the sinister twilight zone of history where morning routines, a game of chess, Yuri Gagarin, and the eponymous TV show of the novel's title coexist with the brutal yet commonplace machinations of the regime.

How do crimes vanish in plain sight? How does one resist a repressive regime? And who gets to shape the truths we live by and take for granted? The Twilight Zone pulls us into the dark portals of the past, reminding us that the work of the writer in the face of historical erasure is to imagine so deeply that these absences can be, for a time, spectacularly illuminated.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The New York Times Book Review calls it "wildly innovative, a major contribution to literature." Claire Messud of Harper's Magazine notes its powerful artistic impact despite the inadequacy of art to fully capture truth. The Paris Review praises its incantatory, spellbinding quality. Vulture highlights Fernández's unsettling portraits of life under military rule, and BOMB Magazine commends its blend of fact and fiction as a social autopsy. The book has been described as a multilayered exploration of memory, complicity, and historical erasure.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781644450475

Publisher: Graywolf Press,U.S.

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 16 March 2021

Country: United States

Imprint: Graywolf Press,U.S.

Audience: Children

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 134.0mm

Height: 195.0mm

Weight: 248g

Pages: 192

About the Author

Nona Fernández was born in Santiago, Chile. She is an actress and writer, and has published two plays, a collection of short stories, and six novels, including Space Invaders and The Twilight Zone, which was awarded the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize. Natasha Wimmer is the translator of Space Invaders by Nona Fernández, as well as nine books by Roberto Bolaño, including The Savage Detectives and 2666. Her most recent translation is The Dinner Guest by Gabriela Ybarra.

Also by Nona Fernández

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  • Voyager
    One of the world's foremost spots for astronomical observation, the Atacama Desert in Chile is also where, in October 1973, twenty-six people were executed by Pinochet's Caravan of Death. Decades on, a petition gathers for a constellation's stars to be dedicated to them. Nona Fernández is made a god-mother to Mario Argüelles Toro, star HD89353, and asked to write a...
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  • The Twilight Zone
    It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. Our narrator is a child when she first sees this man's face on the magazine's cover with the words 'I Tortured People', and his complicity in...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Space Invaders
    Preoccupied by uneasy memories and visions, a group of friends look back on their childhood. Their dreams circle their old classmate Estrella González Jepsen. They catch glimpses of her braids, hear echoes of her voice, and read old letters. They recall regimented school assemblies, nationalistic class performances, and a trip to the beach. It soon transpires that Estrella's father was...
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