Nona Fernández

Nona Fernández was born in Santiago de Chile in 1971. She initially trained as an actress and founded her own company before making her literary debut in 2000 with the short story collection »El Cielo« (2014; tr: The Heavens).

This was followed two years later by the novel »Mapocho« (2002), which was awarded the Premio Municipal de Literatura, one of Chile’s most important literary prizes. The main character of the novel is the young Chilean woman Rucia, who travels to Santiago – the city where she grew up – for love. There she gets caught up in a labyrinth of memories, secrets, and lies that leads deeper and deeper into the history of her country. The fact that Nona Fernández is also a screenwriter and playwright is reflected in her prose: her narrative texts are characterized by a preference for dialogue, an economical use of language and images of cinematographic quality.

Her play »Liceo de niñas« (premiere in 2015; tr: Girls’ School), which brings the present and past of Chile, represented by current and former schoolgirls, into dialog with each other, was nominated for the German Youth Theatre Award 2022. The novel »La dimensión desconocida« (2016; Eng. »The Twilight Zone«, 2021) was recently published in German translation in 2024. Set during the military dictatorship in Chile, it tells the story of a member of the secret police who turns to a journalist from an opposition magazine to admit his involvement in the regime’s brutal machinations. »Through her virtuoso combination of historical reality and literary imagination, Nona Fernández not only confronts readers with a dark chapter in Chile’s history, she also opens up the subject to general questions of dealing with historical and collective trauma«, wrote the FAZ. The novel was awarded the Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and was shortlisted for the National Book Award.

Nona Fernández lives in Santiago de Chile.

Status: April 2024

El Cielo
Cuarto Propio
Santiago, 2000

German Translation:
Der Himmel
Septime
Wien, 2014
(Ü: Anna Gentz)

Mapocho
Planeta
Madrid, 2002

German Translation:
Die Toten im trüben Wasser des Mapocho
Septime
Wien, 2012
(Ü: Anna Gentz)

Av. 10 de Julio Huamachuco
Uqbar
Burgos, 2007

German Translation:
Die Straße zum 10. Juli
Septime
Wien, 2017
(Ü: Anna Gentz)

Space invaders
Alquimia
Santiago, 2013

Chilean Electric
Alquimia
Santiago, 2015

German Translation:
Space Invaders / Chilean Electric
Septime
Wien, 2017
(Ü: Anna Gentz)

La dimensión desconocida
Penguin Random House
Santiago, 2016

German Translation:
Twilight Zone
CulturBooks
Hamburg, 2024
(Ü: Friederike von Criegern)