Synopses & Reviews
What happens when two revolutionaries are left with nothing to believe in, not even each other?
A literary icon in Chile and a major figure in the anti-Pinochet resistance, Diamela Elite get renewed attention in the English language in a novel of breakdowns. Holed up together, old, ill, and untethered from the revolutionary action that defined them, a couple's bonds dissolve in their loss of a child and their loss of belief in an idea. What is there left to have faith in when the structures we built, and the ones we succumbed to, no longer offer us any comfort or prospect of salvation?
Review
“Never Did the Fire will be a first-rate literary experience for any reader.” El País
Review
“One of the greatest merits of Diamela Eltit's work is the way she narrates failure from the interior of her language.” Letras Libres
About the Author
Diamela Eltit is one of Latin America's most daring writers and is highly regarded for her avant-garde initiatives in the world of letters. During the Pinochet dictatorship, she participated in the collective CADA, staging art actions against the dictatorship, and published her first novels to universal acclaim. She has been honoured by the Modern Language Association in the United States and Casa de las Americas in Havana, and has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation and been writer-in-residence at Brown University, Washington University in St. Louis, Columbia University, UC Berkeley, the University of Virginia, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Cambridge (UK). She is currently the Distinguished Global Professor of Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU.
Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor and translator with over eighty books to his name. His translations (from Portuguese, Spanish and French) include fiction from Europe, Africa and the Americas and non-fiction by writers ranging from Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago to Brazilian footballer Pelé. Recent books include the new Oxford Companion to Children's Literature and a translation of an Angolan novel. He is a former chair of the Society of Authors and is presently on the board of a number of organisations that deal with literature, literacy, translation and free expression. In 2021 Daniel was made an OBE for his services to literature.