ROADS LESS TRAVELLED: THE AMERICAS OFF THE BEATEN TRACK - JANUARY 2026 WE WILL EXPLORE CHILE

CHILE!

Running like an anaconda up the south western edge of the South American continent. Chile has been officially independent of Spain since 1844.

Approximate area : 292,000 ft2
Population : 19,629,588 (2023)
Capital : Santiago
Culture : Nobel Winners: Gabriela Mistral 1945; Pablo Neruda 1971
Geographic Features : Atacama desert; Andes on the East and part of Patagonia.

THE YEARLY PLAN



THE AMERICAN CONTINENT OFF THE BEATEN PATH

Our tour of the less well traveled pathways of the American continent in 2026.

I will not impinge on the wonderful American Author Challenge and I am not looking to repeat the Canadian author challenges that have featured as this is largely about everywhere else on the continent.

This will be our journey:

JANUARY - CHILEAN AUTHORS
FEBRUARY - ANGLO CARIBBEAN AUTHORS
MARCH - MEXICAN AUTHORS
APRIL - HISPANIC NORTH AMERICANS
MAY - BRAZILIAN AUTHORS
JUNE - NON-FICTION ABOUT THE AMERICAS
JULY - CUBAN AUTHORS
AUGUST - FRANCO CARIBBEAN
SEPTEMBER - COLOMBIAN AUTHORS
OCTOBER - FIRST NATION NORTH AMERICANS
NOVEMBER - ARGENTINIAN AUTHORS
DECEMBER - OTHER PARTS OF THE CONTINENTS

Reporting for duty, sir!

Added this thread to the group wiki…

>2 PaulCranswick: & >3 amanda4242: Thanks to both of you!!

Thank you for doing this each year, Paul. It stretches me. Sometimes I don't wanna go, but it's always good! I've already started my read, got it early from the library. I'm reading Roberto Bolano's The Third Reich. About half way through and it's "weird!"

My only question will be December: what continent-North or South America?

>6 Tess_W: We will have a shared read Tess because I am reading that one too!

Hahaha good question on December but as usual I shall leave it entirely to the decision of the reader. It could be either North America or South America. I will go and add an "S".

Thanks for setting this up Paul! For me a continent I have rarely visited, bookwise, so lots to discover.
I’ll be starting with Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits which I managed to skip reading when it was first published. We’ll see.

SPOILER ALERT***** The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano

I got this 1 day after I requested it from the library and at only 288 pages finished it in two days. Hence, it's a day early!

I read Roberto Bolano’s The Third Reich. Needless to say, it was not at all what I expected. It is the story of Udo, a master gamer and developer, who can’t quite distinguish between reality and imagination. The more Udo plays the game, the deeper he recedes from reality. Quite a commentary on power, memory, and using violence as a hobby or pastime. I can think that the book was supposed to be a type of psychological thriller or haunting, but it really just didn’t work for me. The pace was very slow. 288 pages 3 stars

I am also reading House of Spirits for January as well. I hope to participate as much as I can, my local library's holdings being the key.

I will also be reading The House of Spirits. I've read one book by Allende previously and it was not much of a hit for me so I've avoided her books ever since.

I just put in a library hold for Ways of Going Home by Alejandra Zambra - excited to participate in this challenge!

>9 Tess_W: Read by Worried of Kuala Lumpur!

I'm not committing myself to all months, but this one does strike my fancy. I'll be on the lookout for something that will fit the categories that I think I would enjoy.

Happy New Year, Paul and thanks for setting this up. I missed your European Tour somehow, but I'll try to focus on this one.

I'm excited to participate in this one Paul! I loved the European tour last year although I lost track of it sometime in the summer.
I'm going to start with Bolano's 2666 and I may have an unread Allende somewhere on my shelves.

>16 AnneDC: I enjoyed 2666 when I read it several years ago, Anne, but be prepared as it is not an easy read. I hope you like it. It seems to be a divisive book on that front - you either love it or hate it, lol.

Thank you, Paul, for continuing to challenge us to read books by authors from around the world and whose voices we might otherwise miss. Although I didn't read as many titles last year as I did for your Asia and Africa challenges, I did manage to read at least one book for 11 out of the 12 months. To start things off this year, I have chosen The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández. I would love to also squeeze in A House in the Country by José Donoso, but it's unlikely.

I am going to read Des putains meurtrières by Roberto Bolaño soon. It is a book with thirteen short stories.

I read In the Midst of Winter by Allende. It is not as good as her more well known books. It is about the refugees from Guatemala in the US.

I read Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra. It's a very short novel that shifts between a fictional author and the story he's writing, which is semi-autobiographical. It begins and ends with earthquakes & blends in the difficult politics of Chile. A worthwhile read.

The BlackHole is growing by leaps and bounds! Unfortunately my ability to get hold of some of the books is limited.

>22 alcottacre: I find archive.org is a great source for more obscure books. Except that I have to read on my computer as not all of them have ereader forms. I'm willing to do that to read books I can't get unless I pay a fortune for OOP copies.

A fellow Club Reader put together this list of recommendations, if anyone is looking for more suggestions: Just Lists. I would add By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño too.

>23 JayneCM: Great idea! Thank you, Jayne.

>21 ChrisG1: That sounds good - but no easy access, so I won't be reading it this month.

I completed Roberto Bolano's unfinished novel; Woes of a True Policeman. This was probably easier to read than is more well known novels and actual gives some information about characters in the other books.

Some lovely comments here thank you for participating in this challenge where and when you feel able. My challenges are always not intended to be the cause of stress.

I read Isabel Allende's memoir, My Invented Country. Her family looks a lot like the family in The House of the Spirits, even down to the magical realism. Her grandmother is supposed to have been clairvoyant, and her ancestral home sounds an awful lot like the house in the novel.

Hi Paul and others. I just read about this group challenge over on Lisa's thread and I'm stopping by, considering taking the plunge and trying to participate this year. I can confidently say that I won't read for every month but, with all that is currently happening in the world, this feels like a timely endeavor.

I have a couple of books by Roberto Bolaño on my shelf. They have been there a while. Maybe it's time I got to reading one of them.

Thanks for hosting, Paul.

I just finished my re-read of The House of the Spirits. What a terrific book!

A tip for everyone reading Isabel Allende this month - the latest episode of the BBC's The History Hour has a segment about Allende and The House of the Spirits. I haven't had time to listen yet, but it's usually an interesting podcast.

>32 PawsforThought: Nice! If only I knew how to get The History Hour here in the States.

>33 alcottacre: Should be available through any and all podcast apps!

>33 alcottacre: Thanks, Paws!

>32 PawsforThought: Thanks, Paws. I'm planning to read Zorro, which I have had on my shelves for a number of years, and this challenge is giving me the kick I needed to get to it. I'll take a listen to the podcast to see what they have to say.

>33 alcottacre: I go directly to the BBC World Service website and there are over 500 podcasts, including this one.

>32 PawsforThought:, I am listening to it now. Thanks for posting.

I would love to reread The House of Spirits. Maybe I will be able to fit it in this month!

Finished The Insufferable Gaucho. Noted from LT entry for my book that it was a present from a lover exactly ten years ago yesterday. Unlike many reviewers, enjoyed the two essays included with Bolaño’s short stories. Hope to get to 2666 one of these days but have at least ticked off a Chilean author for January.

Have started Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. On my shelves, unread, since I picked it up at some demo after the overthrow of Salvador Allende.

>41 labfs39: Excellent review of what sounds like an interesting novel.

>43 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen.

Last week I finished two poetry collections: Pablo Neruda's Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, which I absolutely hated and a collection of poems by Gabriela Mistral, collected and translated by Hjalmar Gullberg, which I really liked.
Now starting The House of the Spirits, which I'm fairly certain I read as a teenager but don't remember anything of.

>45 PawsforThought: Have only read five poems so far in the Neruda volume, so will wait to give my assessment, but will say that my bi-lingual copy gives me an opportunity to look at the Spanish text. I never studied Spanish, but I do know French and (some) Latin so it is interesting to spot many Spanish words whose meaning is thus evident. Presumably a Spanish speaker would recognise the Chilean flavour of Neruda’s Spanish. A character in The Insufferable Gaucho is mocked for affecting a Buenos Aires accent. Wish I knew what that was.

I didn’t get along with House of the Spirits, but I just finished Paula. It’s autobiographical, and quite interesting. She writes about her writing, for instance, but also about her life, the choices she made, Pinochet, leaving Chile, for Venezuela, and then California. Paula is her daughter, who fell into a coma. This story is the heart of the book.

I am joining late, but I'm glad to explore the Less-Travelled Roads of America with this group! Thanks Paul to organise this trip!

To travel on Chilean roads this month, I have chosen to dust a book from my shelves, a book by Hernán Rivera Letelier, an author who, unfortunately does not seem to have been translated in English. The novel I have chosen is Santa María de las flores negras (which I am reading in French, not Spanish). It is about the events that led to the massacre of striking saltpeter miners, in Iquique on December 21, 1907 (wikipedia link).

I have also just bought The Twilight Zone but I will probably read if slightly latter in the year.

>41 labfs39: I am going to have to see if I can get hold of a copy of that one. Thanks for the review, Lisa!

>47 EllaTim: Another one that I will have to see if I can get. Thanks, Ella!

>48 raton-liseur: Welcome!

>41 labfs39: Nice review! I've put off reading it because I thought I should brush up on my Pinochet first, but likely that's not going to happen!

>45 PawsforThought: Finished Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair last night. What did you find so unappealing?

>52 booksaplenty1949: The way he writes about women. The very definition of “gross old man”. Constant descriptions of women as things, not people.

>53 PawsforThought: I can see your point, to some extent. I believe he was actually 20 years old when the book was first published, if that helps.

>54 booksaplenty1949: I don't see how that would make anything better. If anything, it makes it worse. It's still a gross, inhuman an misogynist way to seeing women and I find it discusting.

>51 Tess_W: Thanks, Tess. I think The Twilight Zone is accessible without being up on Pinochet's regime, especially with its pop cultural references. I'm sure a Chilean, or someone versed in the history, would get even more out of it, but I didn't find it necessary, and I'm someone who usually Googles things constantly.

>55 PawsforThought: Well, it’s very self-centred, as one would expect from a young man exploring sexual love for the first time. We can hope that he got past the “idea” of love to a real relationship at some point. Actually, looking at Wikipedia, I see that he was married three times. Complicated man, clearly. Political career also complicated. Twenty Love Poems is the #1 best-selling book of Spanish poetry of all time; make of that what you will.

>57 booksaplenty1949: I have no issue with self-cantered, but misogynistic is a completely different matter. And I know he’s very beloved, which really goes beyond my comprehension - but other authors and poets I despite are also hailed as geniuses.

>58 PawsforThought: One can hail an author as a genius without actually buying his/her book. People clearly like Twenty Love Poems.

>59 booksaplenty1949: Never said they didn’t like it. Only that I can’t comprehend why. And that I don’t think misogyny is genius.

I've decided to DNF The House of the Spirits for now. Not because I don't like it (it's fine so far) but it's a long book and I'm not going to finish it in January, and I don't want to have too many reads dragging into the next month. So I'd rather focus on my other reads and maybe get back to this one at a different time.

I finished A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende. It was just ok. I enjoyed the history aspect of it as the main characters were immigrants to Chile from Spain when Chile accepted refugees from the Spanish Civil War. But it was more like a prolonged list of what people did rather than a story.

This topic has finally inspired me to pick up The Savage Detectives from the shelf and read all the way through it. Thanks for the prod. I'm now contemplating who to read in February.

I managed to finish The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende. I wasn't thrilled by the book but decided to keep reading as it's considered a classic. While it's obviously set in Chile, Allende deliberately never mentions the country's name, she says in an interview that this allowed her to play around with historical facts and dates plus made the story more universal.

I read The House of Spirits when it first was published but remember little about it, so I plan a reread although I am obviously not getting it done in January. Better late?

I am currently reading Zorro by Isabel Allende. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to finish it by tonight, but it's well underway, and I am enjoying it very much.

THE ROADS LESS TRAVELLED CHALLENGE is up for February.

We are visiting the English speaking Caribbean.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/378317

I finished Zorro by Isabel Allende this morning. I was close to finishing yesterday but couldn't quite squeeze it all in. She gives us a reimagining of the Zorro story, but it is set in Zorro's youth and explains how Diego de la Vega became Zorro. Zorro's companion Bernardo is also developed and is shown as a real person and not just a caricature. Allende also adds new characters, and women are strong and have agency of their own in this version. A good half of the book is set in Spain during the Napoleonic era, where Zorro is sent to finish his education. There's quite a twist at the end. This story basically ends where the traditional Zorro tales pick up. All in all, this was a lot of fun.

I've been struggling with The Obscene Bird of Night by Jose Donoso since mid-January. I have about 80 pages left, and I am determined to finish it. It is very surreal!

>69 arubabookwoman: You can do it, Deborah!

I finally finished my reread of The House of the Spirits! Better late than never.

Greatly enjoyed The Savage Detectives when I read it a few years ago but copy of 2666 I ordered turned out to be something of a doorstop. Now listening to audiobook and it is getting off to a good start.