Despite its brevity and a deceptively simple plot, Pilar Quintana’s novella manages to tackle, with the lightest of touches, a striking range of profound themes, from poverty and class inequality to loneliness, loss and repentance.
The book tells the story of Damaris, living hand to mouth on Colombia’s Pacific coast with her fisher husband, Rogelio. They supplement their income as caretakers for an adjacent house, property of an affluent family who have moved to the city. Approaching middle age and childless, Damaris and Rogelio squander their scant resources on increasingly desperate fertility treatments, to no avail. Damaris pours her maternal feelings into the care of her pet, a female puppy she names Chirli, a name she had earmarked for the daughter she never had.
