El Baile De La Victoria

From the prize-winning Chilean novelist Antonio Skármeta, author of , comes this soulful novella about a son and his estranged father.

Jacques is a schoolteacher in a small Chilean village, and a French translator for the local paper. He owes his passion for the French language to his Parisian father, Pierre, who, one year before, abruptly returned to France without a word of explanation. Jacques and his mother’s sense of abandonment is made more acute by their isolation in this small community where few read or think. While Jacques finds distraction in a crush on his student’s older sister, his preoccupation with his father’s disappearance continues to haunt him. But there is often more to a story than the torment it causes. This one is about forgiveness and second chances.

A novel based on the true story of how an advertising campaign caused the fall of Chile’s dictator, General Pinochet.

Nico, the son of a noted Chilean philosophy professor, witnesses his father’s arrest while he is teaching a class. Bettini, the father of Nico’s best friend, is a leftist advertising executive who has been blacklisted and is out of work after having been imprisoned and tortured by Pinochet’s police. This doesn’t stop the ministry of the interior from asking Bettini, who is the best in the business, to come up with a plan for the upcoming referendum designed to say “yes” to Pinochet’s next term. But just hours after he has been approached by the right, the head of the opposition makes him the exact same offer. What is Bettini going to do? Put his life on the line or sacrifice his political convictions? Finally he goes with the left. The next hurdle is finding a slogan that would be approved by the sixteen factions that comprise the opposition and who never agree on anything. Whiskey after whiskey, an idea finally emerges.

This is a vivacious tale that examines how advertising and politics come together during the Pinochet regime. But this is also a coming-of-age story where we see through Nico’s experience what it means to grow up in a country where nothing is allowed and almost any move can feel like an earnest act of resistance.

Esta novela obtuvo el IV Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América de Narrativa 2011, concedido por el siguiente jurado: Ángela Becerra, Alberto Díaz, Guillermo Martínez, Álvaro Pombo, Imma Turbau y Ricardo Sabanes, que actuó como secretario sin voto. La reunión del Jurado tuvo lugar en Santiago de Chile el 13 de marzo de 2011. El fallo del Premio se hizo público dos días después en la misma ciudad.

Nico ha visto cómo se llevaban a su padre delante de toda la clase y sabe que tiene que hacer dos llamadas y esperar. Lo llamaban el plan Baroco. Su enamorada, Patricia Bettini, hija de un conocido publicista, le acompaña y, sin apenas darse cuenta, impulsa a su padre a escuchar las voces de la gente y participar en una auténtica rebelión. Juntos y con un acto imaginativo, lleno de humor, abren el camino a la libertad.

Una novela de padres e hijos, maestros y discípulos que se las ingenian para devolver los colores y la música a una capital gris.

Con la prosa delicada de Antonio Skármeta y la voz de Nico, la novela es una bella historia de ilusión y esperanza en tiempos difíciles.