Bonsai
Alejandro Zambra
2022 (originally published 1997)
Penguin
pp. 112
It is a beautiful, beautiful book. If you are looking for recommendation, you don’t need to read any further. If you are here only out of interest, read on.
The novella talks about the love affair of a young man and women. It is not the intensity of love that most love stories but the realism with which it is depicted. The writing is so simple that it is unbelievable that it is so poetic. I could be very biased, but books and reading to each other takes on an important space in the in the togetherness of the young couple. Eventually, they move on and live their own lives. Their love lingers on, like the fragrance of someone who has just left. There are no surprises in the story. You know the end in the first page of the book and yet there is so much beauty. I loved it.