A review by booksnpunks
Voyager: Constellations of Memory by Nona Fernández

4.0

God I love Nona Fernandez!!! In her memoir she discusses her mother’s epilepsy diagnosis that coincides with her 80th birthday through the lens of stars, constellations and astrology. She discusses memory and the brain as it’s own sort of constellation, and how the history of astrology is really a science which links the actions of hundreds of thousands of years ago to our understanding of human nature now. The stars are really just glimpses of the past - memory and the act of remembering is a way of our heart connecting to the signals which make our brain happy.

I loved the discussions of astrology and the history of the zodiac, but also the science of stars and the idea that we are all linked through our memories of the same sky at different points in time. I always learn so much about Chilean history from Fernandez and of course it wouldn’t be a Nona Fernandez book if she didn’t include a critique of the Pinochet regime which she does through the lens of her son, who is living this day as a seventeen year old in a way that Fernandez wishes she could have done when she was his age.

Such a beautifully written and layered memoir which was both moving, informative, creative and magical. I don’t know how she does this but her books are always so stunning.