A harrowing meditation on tyranny, torture, and freedom by one of Chilé's most celebrated contemporary poets. Raúl Zurita’s INRI is a visionary response to the atrocities committed under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. In this deeply moving elegy for the dead, the whole of Chile, with its snow-covered cordilleras and fields of wildflowers, its empty spaces and the sparkling sea beyond, is simultaneously transformed into the grave of its lost children and their living and risen body. Zurita’s incantatory, unapologetically political work is one of the great prophetic poems of our new century.
“Zurita creates a wonderful body of work that marks a point of no return for the poetics of the previous generation and for which he stands out among his generation....” —Roberto Bolaño
“In brutal opposition to the pouring of libations into the earth for future good harvests, Pinochet’s regime harvests humans and dumps them into the holes of the earth: the oceans and volcanoes. These deaths cannot be understood and this poem is not for understanding. Zurita’s INRI asks without asking: what forms may avenge our avalanche of unjust deaths.” —Helen Dimos
"These poems arise into the English language as spirits of dissidence attesting to fascist violence whilst daring beauty.” —Verity Spott
A harrowing meditation on tyranny, torture, and freedom by one of Chilé's most celebrated contemporary poets. Raúl Zurita’s INRI is a visionary response to the atrocities committed under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. In this deeply moving elegy for the dead, the whole of Chile, with its snow-covered cordilleras and fields of wildflowers, its empty spaces and the sparkling sea beyond, is simultaneously transformed into the grave of its lost children and their living and risen body. Zurita’s incantatory, unapologetically political work is one of the great prophetic poems of our new century.
Praise
“Zurita creates a wonderful body of work that marks a point of no return for the poetics of the previous generation and for which he stands out among his generation....” —Roberto Bolaño
“In brutal opposition to the pouring of libations into the earth for future good harvests, Pinochet’s regime harvests humans and dumps them into the holes of the earth: the oceans and volcanoes. These deaths cannot be understood and this poem is not for understanding. Zurita’s INRI asks without asking: what forms may avenge our avalanche of unjust deaths.” —Helen Dimos
"These poems arise into the English language as spirits of dissidence attesting to fascist violence whilst daring beauty.” —Verity Spott
