Author(s): Gabriela Wiener (Author) , Julia Sanches (Translated by)

Novel | Translated fiction | Peru | 2024 International Booker Prize long list

A provocative autobiographical novel that reckons with the legacy of colonialism through one woman's family ties to both colonised and coloniser

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'Wiener has rescued an intimate story from the family archive, a story that is also the infamous history of our continent, with her trademark intelligence and irreverent humor. Her prose, sober and forward, is fresh air; her view allows us to be testimonies of Latin America's cycles of plundering and looting' Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive

'Reading Undiscovered, I wondered what so captivated me about this novel. Was it Gabriela's innate ability to plunder all sorts of convention? Her persistent exploration of our deepest despairs-the weight and falsehoods of the stories and imperatives we inherit? All this, but Undiscovered is also spurred on by a yet more profound and radical strength: the spirit of fury. Powerful and searing, this novel snaps, bucks, heals, and snaps again' Samanta Schweblin, author of Fever Dream

'Undiscovered's beautiful blend of fiction and personal feeling on everything from sex, to death, to Peru's traumatic history to France's heritage-colonial industry could not be more contemporary, vital and important, or expressed in more dynamic and immersive prose' Preti Taneja, author of the Desmond Elliott Prize-winning We That Are Young

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Alone in an ethnographic museum in Paris, Gabriela Wiener is confronted with her unusual inheritance. She is visiting an exhibition of pre-Columbian artefacts, the spoils of European colonial plunder, many of them from her home country of Peru. Peering through the glass, she sees sculptures of Indigenous faces that resemble her own - but the man responsible for pillaging them was her own great-great-grandfather, Austrian colonial explorer Charles Wiener.

In the wake of her father's death, Gabriela begins delving into all she has inherited from her paternal line. From the brutal trail of racism and theft Charles was responsible for, to revelations of her father's infidelity, she traces a legacy of abandonment, jealousy and colonial violence, and questions its impact on her own struggles with desire, love and race in a polyamorous relationship.

Blending personal, historical and fictional modes, Undiscovered tells of a search for identity beyond the old stories of patriarchs and plunder. Incisive and fiercely irreverent, it builds to a powerful call for decolonisation.

Author Biography: Gabriela Wiener is a Peruvian writer and journalist. Her books include Nine Moons, a memoir on pregnancy, and Sexographies, a collection of gonzo journalism about contemporary sex culture. Her work has been widely published in anthologies and translated into six languages. Wiener won a Peruvian National Award of Journalism for a report on violence against women.Julia Sanches translates from Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan. Her translations include Slash and Burn by Claudia Hernandez, for which she won a PEN/Heim award, and Boulder by Eva Baltasar, which was shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize.