As soon as I finished I immediately wanted to start it over. So beautifully written and translated. The prose was so gentle but with some hard-hitting poetic observations about colonialism / class / gender / climate change / capitalism. Recently I’ve been loving near-future not-quite-dystopian stories (or rather stories that emphasize the dystopian elements we’re living through now). This reminded me of a softer more subtle Dengue Boy. “…to me, it didn't feel like an invitation to live there. I doubted they wanted us as neighbours. Instead, it seemed we were being asked to be spectators to their vengeance, their victory, their opulence. I didn't doubt the banality of their cruelty.” “Chilco was a crawling body, an absent womb, a missing arm. Chilco was an organ I hadn't grown and, suddenly, I was incomplete.”

This is a subtly powerful novel that has left me without words. This is my first read from Charco Press and it won't be my last especially with how this story has gotten underneath my skin. I was drawn to this novel because any story about capitalisms wounding of people and the land just have a special place in my heart, I think this is because I am Canadian and I grew up understanding that the people and the land are one. Pascale's yearning for Chilco resonated so deeply with me, when he realized that he couldn't die without the sea being near him I felt a sadness and a longing for the trees of my homeland with him. Chilco is set in a near dystopian future that seems to arrive slowly then all at once forcing our characters to examine life and everything that makes it. This was a slow but engaging read for me, the prose asks that you take your time with it and if you do you will be well rewarded. What unfolds is complex story of uprooting, uprooting thought, uprooting physically and uprooting spiritually and all the consequences that come with disconnection. This was a fantastic read, gentle but powerful, I will be thinking about this book for a long time! A massive massive thank you to Charco Press for sending me a copy in exchange for a review, this was brilliant!