M. is the daughter of a door-to-door representative of hardware materials and of an oddly absent mother with a secret past. Her simple, but carefully planned, appearance at her father’s side during his sales trips becomes a powerful tool in convincing buyers to place orders. So much so that requests for her services start coming in from fellow door-to-door salesmen. And it is through the products her father peddles, her cheeky commercial sense and an undeniable vocation for the farcical, that M. tries to understand the world around her.
This precarious and picaresque world built amongst low quality nails and hammers crashes to the ground when a secret is revealed and re-awakens the figure of a mother up to that moment in the background.
Kramp explores themes such as the country’s social developments through the portrayal of a changing labour market (the fading world of door-to-door salesmen) or the ghosts left behind by the years of the dictatorship, but it is the deterioration of touching complicity between a father and his daughter the real tragedy the pages hide. A great critical and sales success in Chile where it was published in 2017 by Emecé.
Winner of the BEST NOVEL CRITICS AWARD 2017
Winner of the MINISTRY OF CULTURE BEST NOVEL PRIZE October 2018
Winner of the CITY OF SANTIAGO MUNICIPAL PRIZE December 2018
“Exceptional.” The New York Times Book Review Review
“Charming. . . Fans of The Elegance of the Hedgehog will want to make time for this one.” The Chicago
Review of Books
“[Kramp] is a dreamscape of a book. I adored this compelling, wise, and utterly unique coming-of-age tale.”Tara Conklin, author of The Last Romantics
“Terrific…This bighearted story offers a host of memorable set pieces. Hitched together by this multitalented
writer, they make for an outstanding novel.” WORLD LITERATURE TODAY
“We have here, in my humble opinion, the perfect story, the perfect perspective, the perfect sound. This
novel is a miracle.” Alejandro Palomas
“A short work of real delight.” El Mundo
“Reading this novel is pure joy” Gute Literatur Meine Empfehlung
“Kramp is a wonderfully poetic and imaginative book about an intimate father-daughter relationship and the special world of traveling salesmen.” Deutschlandfunk Kultur
“A sort of suspended grace. An incredible writing talent. In its brevity, an absolutely perfect text.” Paludes
“A little marvel. One of the most beautiful discoveries of this spring.” Lise et moi
“I loved the tone, at times funny, at times tragic. The world of imagination, the poetry of this text and its quirky side make it an amazing reading experience!” Librairie Arcanes
“A magnificent discovery, an endearing character, a detached but touching writing, a devastating humour, an underlying beauty.” L’Atelier Librairies
“It’s funny, absurd, an unclassifiable UFO book. A short text that can be devoured in one go.” Cultura
“A jewel, an enchantment, a pure marvel, for real.” Librairie Durance
“Magical. Purely magical“ – Politiken (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
”Extremely stylish and sharp debut … A strong and disturbing novel” – Jyllands-Posten
“Tight and perfectly forged writing” – Information
132 pages – Original Language: Spanish (Emecé/Planeta Chile, Santiago, 2017). Foreign Editions: English/North American (Tin House, 2021), German (Berenberg Verlag, 2021), Spanish/Mexico (Dharma Books, 2022), French (Quidam Editions, 2023), Spanish/Colombia (Laguna Libros, 2023), Polish (Claroscuro, 2022), Icelandic (Angústúra, 2023), Portuguese (Questão Pentagonal, 2023), Spanish/Argentina & Uruguay (Emecé Editores, Planeta, 2022), Hungarian (Metropolis, 2022), Turkish (CAN Yayinlari, 2022), Arabic (Dar Kalemat, 2024), Spanish/Spain (Alianza, 2019), Danish (Jensen & Dalgaard, 2020), Brazilian Portuguese (Editora Moinhos, 2020), Spanish/Audio (Storytel, 2020), Italian (Edicola, 2018)