On a remote island lives the author of the most fantastic travel diary one could ever imagine: Virginia Mountweazel. A photographer, pilot and author of that one perfect book, she has decided to spend the final days of her life watching birds. Her peace is disrupted by hundreds of letters from readers, sent from all corners of the globe to her hideaway. Our protagonist also arrives there, having one fine day decided to leave the tedium of her city life behind to seek her out.

The first novel by Valeria Tentoni, poet and journalist, La vida privada ventures into a profound reflection on the winding paths that connect life and work, without ever losing its rhythm, humour or the search for meaning beyond words.

With a gentle yet unpredictable style, Valeria Tentoni guides us along the fine line that separates reality from fiction, naivety from courage, admiration from resentment, and the danger of believing that what we read actually exists.Cynthia Rimsky

With nods to Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley, the narrator of this novel plunges into a labyrinth of identity theft as unexpected as it is captivating. La vida privada, however, dismisses the detective narrative and turns to cartography to become a magnificent demonstration that access to certain revelations and epiphanies is only achieved by forging a few maps. María Sonia Cristoff

With a relentless narrative drive and prose as finely crafted as a goldsmith’s work, Valeria Tentoni leads us, without pause or respite, to a place that soon reveals itself to be uncomfortable, misty, uncertain. A taut, seamless plot, gripping from the very first page: reading La vida privada is like travelling up a river in Vietnam. Luis Sagasti

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