In the pages of A House of One’s Own, Ernesto Garratt brings the characters of The Live-Ins—his award-winning debut novel— back to display that exquisite combination of overflowing fantasy with relentless realism.
The plot begins with an old and dirty house of Rodrigo de Araya (a humble neighbourhood in Santiago de Chile), where the young protagonist and his mother arrive after successive changes of rooms, waiting to obtain the subsidy for a house. The waiting for this event constitutes a central element in this volume where the anxiety and the desire to find a refuge are intermingled with the the protagonist's first trip to the sea, his preparation for college entrance exam, the pregnancy of his girlfriend and the hallucinated writing of Mihai—the captivating story of the vampire who can anticipate the future. However, his daily life is interrupted by an unexpected and dramatic event, which is undoubtedly the most challenging test that destiny has ever given him.
“When you are a live-in, you lose courage, dignity, privacy, and even your own name. The only thing that one does not lose, I think, is the ability to have more and more. Fear grows proportionally to the lack of certainties in a better future. And there I was. With my terror growing healthy and strong.”
