Cracks We Bear

Chilean writer Infantes penetrating English-language debut centers on a woman coping with the challenges of new motherhood while reflecting on her late mother. This slim and subtle work packs a stinging punch. Publishers WeeklyMotherhood is terrifying, thinks Laura, feeling small and helpless as she holds her newborn daughter. Instead of joy, she feels fear, and then anger at her own late mother for her absence. The Cracks We Bear opens as a story about new motherhood. Soon, however, it reveals itself to be an exploration of memory and trauma as Laura starts to recall her childhood in Chile. Born in exile to staunchly communist parents, she returns to Chile with her mother after the collapse of the Pinochet dictatorship. In the fledgling democracy she grows up in, topics of capitalism and communism are ever present. Lauras reflections, born from personal experience, are interwoven with raw and honest memories of her family life. Borrowing elements from the Bildungsroman, and pulling from the Latin American short story tradition, Catalina Infante recounts Lauras past in vignettes. Piece by piece, the short chapters come together like a reconstructed vase, bearing its cracks.