Reviews

Chile’s Atacama Desert is renowned for astronomical observations but is also where 26 people were executed by Pinochet’s Caravan of Death - when a petition gathers for a constellation of stars to be dedicated to the victims, Fernández is asked to be godmother to one of those stars, prompting reflection on the cosmos, her country’s history and her mother’s illness.

Although this is billed as a memoir, I’d describe it as more of a very personal meditation on memory, on our place in the universe and on remembrance, both the act and the importance of it. Either way, I really enjoyed it.

It does help to have some background awareness of Chile’s recent history, particularly the Caravan of Death, as there’s quite a bit about the Pinochet regime. Fernández contemplates the importance of recognising and remembering those years, both on personal and societal scales, and, crucially, the consequences of deliberately forgetting and of sanitising the past.

While the links that Fernández draws between memory and astronomy did occasionally feel slightly tenuous, the description of her mother’s brain scan as showing “constellations of neurones” and the comparison with constellations of stars is striking and I still think about it. And the idea of a memorial to victims linked to the stars, the springboard which prompted the reflections in this book, is beautiful.

An enjoyable, meandering meditation on memory, remembrance and our place in the universe.

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