El Tercer Paraíso (Premio Alfaguara 2022) / The Third Paradise - by Cristian Alarcón Casanova (Paperback)

About the Book

"The 2020 quarantine is fast approaching, and the protagonist feels the urge to retire to his cabin on the outskirts of Buenos Aires to face whatever may come in the near future. While he waits, he starts to grow a garden with all kinds of plants and flowers. His love for nature leads him to research the creation of scientific thought, the birth of botany, and the great adventures of European expeditions of the eighteenth century. At the same time, he recalls his family's history, one that was uprooted from its core in Daglipulli, Chile, by the Pinochet dictatorship. Little by little, this unique setting is flooded by the memory of the sweet dahlias that his grandmother Alba used to grow, the exuberant and threatening presence of the Amazon jungle that Humboldt first laid his eyes on in 1799, and the then controlled sale of the hybrids that he now buys in nurseries. In this paradise, and at different degrees of conservation, the natural landscape of the Southern Cone becomes a central character, with its own rhythms and with the footprints left behind by those who tried to settle it. History, botany, and the family's story come together and mark the protagonist's personality, his life choices, and his way of being part of this world."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Ganadora del Premio Alfaguara de Novela 2022

Se acerca el confinamiento de 2020 y el protagonista siente la tentación de retirarse a su cabaña en las afueras de Buenos Aires para hacer frente desde allí a lo que pueda venir. Mientras espera, cultiva un jardín con todo tipo de plantas y flores. Su amor por la naturaleza le lleva a indagar en la formación del pensamiento científico, el nacimiento de la botánica y la gran aventura de las expediciones europeas del siglo xviii. Al mismo tiempo, rememora la historia de su familia, que fue arrancada de cuajo de sus raíces en Daglipulli, Chile, por la dictadura de Pinochet.

Poco a poco este escenario singular se ve inundado por el recuerdo de las humildes dalias que plantaba su abuela Alba, la presencia exuberante y amenazadora de la selva amazónica con la que se encontró Humboldt en 1799 y la seguridad controlada de los híbridos que compra ahora en viveros. En este paraíso en diferentes grados de conservación, el paisaje natural del Cono Sur se convierte en un personaje fundamental, con sus propios ritmos, con las huellas que dejaron los hombres que intentaron poblarlo. La historia, la botánica y el relato familiar confluyen en él y marcan el carácter del protagonista, sus elecciones vitales y su manera de estar en el mundo.

Esta novela es un relato luminoso sobre la vida cotidiana de un individuo pero también sobre las tragedias colectivas que nos acechan. Lo pequeño, lo sencillo, ese paraíso personal que construimos como refugio es también, en última instancia, lo que siempre nos salva

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Winner of the 2022 Alfaguara Novel Prize

The 2020 quarantine is fast approaching, and the protagonist feels the urge to retire to his cabin on the outskirts of Buenos Aires to face whatever may come in the near future. While he waits, he starts to grow a garden with all kinds of plants and flowers. His love for nature leads him to research the creation of scientific thought, the birth of botany, and the great adventures of European expeditions of the eighteenth century. At the same time, he recalls his family's history, one that was uprooted from its core in Daglipulli, Chile, by the Pinochet dictatorship.

Little by little, this unique setting is flooded by the memory of the sweet dahlias that his grandmother Alba used to grow, the exuberant and threatening presence of the Amazon jungle that Humboldt first laid his eyes on in 1799, and the then controlled sale of the hybrids that he now buys in nurseries. In this paradise, and at different degrees of conservation, the natural landscape of the Southern Cone becomes a central character, with its own rhythms and with the footprints left behind by those who tried to settle it. History, botany, and the family's story come together and mark the protagonist's personality, his life choices, and his way of being part of this world.

El tercer paraíso / The Third Paradise is a brilliant story about the daily life of a person, but also about the collective tragedies that dwell within us. The small and simple things, that personal paradise that we build for ourselves as a refuge is also, ultimately, what always saves us.

About the Author

Cristian Alarcón is a writer and journalist. Since the early 1990s, he has devoted his time to investigative journalism and writing chronicles for the newspapers Clarín, Página 12, Crítica de la Argentina, and for the magazines TXT, Rolling Stone, and Gatopardo. In his books Cuando me muera quiero que me toquen cumbia / Dance for Me When I Die (2003) and Si me querés, quereme transa / If You Love Me, Love Me Transa (2010) he joins literature with urban ethnography turning pressing stories into non-fiction novels. In his book Un mar de castillos peronistas / A Sea of ​​Peronist Castles (2013) he writes travel chronicles and profiles of dissident, subordinate, and marginal characters. In 2012 he founded Anfibia magazine and the Cosecha Roja website. Since then, he has led a process of on-going change and transformation of the Latin American chronicle. There he has experimented with the limits of non-fiction narrative and has taken it to one last experience in the Laboratory of Performative Journalism of Anfibia Magazine. His most recent inquiries are about the relationship between journalism and art. He was a visiting professor at the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Austin, Texas, and also at the University of Lille, France. He has been awarded the Samuel Chavkin Prize, the Konex-Diploma of Merit Award in the Chronicles and Testimonies category (2014), and the Profile Award for Freedom of Expression (2019). He is a full professor at the School of Journalism and Social Communication at the University of La Plata, Argentina, and directs the Master's degree program in Narrative Journalism at the School of Humanities in the National University of San Martín, Argentina. His books have been translated into English, French, German, and Polish.