Felipe Becerra Calderón's 'Chiens féraux' Wins Roberto Bolaño Prize

Felipe Becerra Calderón, a Chilean author born in 1985, wrote his debut novel 'Bagual' (French title 'Chiens féraux') starting at age nineteen. He finished the manuscript on July 12, 2006, the day his grandfather died, and submitted it to the Roberto Bolaño competition, winning first prize. Despite this, the novel was rejected by all Chilean publishers and finally published in Lima, Peru, in 2008. The story is set in 1980 during Pinochet's dictatorship, in a small village on the edge of the desert in northern Chile. It follows Rocío and her husband Carlos, a police brigadier who guards a reserve and writes about his fears, his wife's strange behavior, and his involvement in transporting weapons and prisoners for the regime. Rocío is drawn to feral dogs and a young indigenous child who leads her to a cave filled with mummies—victims of the dictatorship. The narrative alternates between the couple, blending dreamlike baroque, science fiction, and multiple registers (narration, monologues, diary, theater). The author notes his generation did not live the dictatorship but heard it, making hearing a key motif.