Mr B's review

Chile, 1973. Pinochet’s government murders twenty-six people in the Atacama Desert, where the stars are more visible than anywhere else on Earth. Decades later, after a successful petition to name constellations after the victims, Nona Fernandez is asked to write a dedication to be read on the site of their execution. Meanwhile, after a series of fainting spells, Nona’s mother begins to lose her memory. As the constellations of neurons in her mother’s brain gradually flicker out, Fernandez masterfully explores the relationship between memory, neuroscience, political erasure and the cosmos in this unconventional memoir. – Rohan