Alejandro Zambra, "Bonsai"

Emilia and Julio were in love once.

(from Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2008)

This story is a heartbreaker. It’s beautiful, it lures you in with spectacular moments in which to lose yourself. It warns you from the very first line, that you may not like where things are going, that Emilia is going to die. It’s a promise you forget the more you learn and like about her. Surely someone like her can never die. And she does. And it breaks your heart. It’s a kick to the gut.
More about this story and Zambra here.

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