Alia Trabucco Zerán - The Remainder (And Other Stories, 2018) ***

"The Remainder" brings the story of three young adults in Santiago, Chile in a not specified time, although it is clear they are the children of ex-militants against the regime of a dictator. Iquela gets the visit of her old friend Paloma who has been living in Germany for many years, with the purpose to organise the funeral of Paloma's body which was expected to be flown over at the same time. Unfortunately, the body was not allowed into the country, so the three young people rent a hearse to cross the border to pick up the coffin.

The story is told from Iquela's relatively balanced perspective, and is alternated by more nightmarish visions of Felipe who sees dead bodies everywhere. All three of them are somehow emotionally damaged, and their relationship becomes one of understanding and miscomprehension, of attraction and rejection, of love and hate.

Trabucco Zerán creates a very tight nucleus of deep emotional distress, set in a context of political and natural violence (there is an ash rain throughout the story). To her credit too: the three protagonists are real people, true humans, all with their generous and petty sides, full of concern for the others and full of self-preservation, and together trying to deal with the ghosts of a common past. Even if the body of Paloma's mother is the pretext for their trip together, the real ghost are the unspoken tensions of the past, between all three and their respective parents.

Worth looking for.