Synopses & Reviews
A poignant collage of stories of women young and old, this novel from an Alfaguara Prize–winning author explores both the need to be seen and the need to disappear.
In present-day New York, Margarita grapples with insecurities on her fifty-sixth birthday. She feels neglected by her husband, and suspects he’s having an affair with one of his students. Mysteries surrounding two friends offer both a distraction and unexpected insight:
Anne, the concierge of her apartment building, has suddenly vanished without a trace, leaving Anne’s mother to confront a long-held secret.
Juliana, now in her eighties, is eager to find the woman who changed the course of her life more than sixty years ago.
With a seamless blend of reality and fiction, Carla Guelfenbein takes us back to the 1940s to provide answers, drawing on the intimate letters that Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral wrote to her lover and executor, Doris Dana, in the years after their first meeting at Barnard College. Struggling under the weight of Gabriela’s intense attachment, the much younger Doris enjoys a passionate night of sex and alcohol with a childhood friend while they’re apart.
Far from the chaste, self-sacrificing image imposed on Mistral after her death because she never married, the characters of One in Me I Never Loved reflect womanhood in all its complexities, challenging the limits on their freedom and sexuality.
Review
“In this kaleidoscopic novel of loves, longings, and disappearances, Carla Guelfenbein brilliantly enfolds mysteries that distances of time and space strive to conceal. It’s a bonus that her writing sparkles. I know of no other nonnative writer since Federico García Lorca who has seen Manhattan with such original precision.” Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties
Review
“Friends go missing, lovers are separated, yet Carla Guelfenbein, a writer with a fierce and tender imagination, makes this novel all about presence: the insistent presence of the past, the presence of possibility and hope. Every point of absence generates probing thought and fervent emotions. Guelfenbein has filled her canvas with mesmerizing, intricate life, leaving no blank spaces.” Joanna Scott, author of The Manikin and Various Antidotes
Review
“In One in Me I Never Loved, Carla Guelfenbein’s stories delicately unravel the mysteries and secrets in the lives of women looking for love and hiding out in the big city. A fascinating study of loneliness and connection.” Marisel Vera, author of The Taste of Sugar
Review
“A mesmerizing novel that explores women’s quest for identity as well as independence. Using the character of Gabriela Mistral and her companion Doris Dana as the centerpiece, these stories are intertwined with grace and passion. An extraordinary book and a delight to read for its inquisitive nature and audacious perspective.” Marjorie Agosín, recipient of the Gabriela Mistral Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement
About the Author
Carla Guelfenbein is the author of six novels and several short stories, which have appeared in magazines and anthologies. Her work has been translated into fourteen languages, and regularly tops bestseller lists in her native Chile. In 2015 her novel In the Distance with You won the prestigious Alfaguara Prize. Before becoming a writer, Guelfenbein studied biology at Essex University and graphic design at St. Martin’s School of Art in London. She has also worked as an art director for BBDO and as a fashion editor at Elle.
Neil Davidson is a newspaper columnist, essayist, and translator. He has published collections of his columns as well as El ceño radiante, a biographical study of Gerard Manley Hopkins with new translations of the poems. Originally from the United Kingdom, he now lives in Chile.