Seeing Red

One of Publishers Weekly's "10 Essential 21st-Century Spanish-Language Books"

An Entropy Magazine "Best of 2016: Fiction Books" selection

Included in World Literature Today's "75 Notable Translations of 2016"

A Foreword Reviews Reviewers' Choice Selection for "14 Favorites of 2016"

"Blurring the lines between fiction and memoir, Meruane’s first novel translated into English explores mortality, identity, and personal transformation. . . . This is a penetrating autobiographical novel, and for English-Language readers this work serves as a stunning introduction to a remarkable author." — Publishers Weekly

"Astonishing...Meruane's authorial gaze is unflinching. . . . Lina resists all attempts to corral her into victimhood and insists on wielding her agency like a weapon...Seeing Red becomes a searing commentary on the limits of family relationships and the cruelty that, under duress, we are capable of exerting on those we love." — Charlotte Whittle, The Los Angeles Times

"New York and her home town, Santiago, are described in prose that blends sensation with memory, fury with fear. The story reveals its truths through immediacy of description—viscous, repulsive, and beautiful." — The New Yorker

"Perfect memory notwithstanding, blindness has affected Lina’s relationships, especially the one with Ignacio, whom she alternately leans on, loves and envies for his undamaged eyes. These passages are the most uncomfortable to read because they show how truly vulnerable we are, how tightly bound is our sense of being physically whole to our sense of being being worthy and lovable." — Beatriz Terrazas, The Dallas Morning News

"Intense, physical, flipping from sensual to gory, Seeing Red is a book about degeneration and offers an exhilarating “fresh eye”, as the author puts it, on what it is to be alive." — Joanna Walsh, The National

“In an autobiographical work full of discomfort, Meruane spares nothing negative, and Seeing Red is astounding and essential for it." — Greg Walklin, Colorado Review

“Meruane’s ability to take readers into the experience of sight loss is extraordinary. Her descriptions are fresh, immediate and memorable, inviting comparisons with passages from Nobel Prize winner José Saramago’s great novel Blindness.” — Ann Morgan, A Year of Reading the World

“Aided by the fine translation from Megan McDowell, newcomers to Meruane's spare prose and caustic wit... will admire the strange force and clarity of this novel that is as painstaking as it is wryly painful.” — Forrest Roth, The Collagist

"a novel of genius and disturbing intelligence," — Enrique Vila-Matas, Northwest Review of Books, in its Books of Note: February 2016

“A raw, sexy, visceral and sometimes brutal account of a woman losing her sight and it explores the immediate effects on her relationships with her lover, family, surroundings and her own body with an unflinching gaze.” — Kirsty Mcluckie, The Scotsman

"From this moment of darkness, the narrative hurtles forward, obsessed by Lina’s physical and emotional pains, which are examined with a vibrant, Kahloesque fascination. The narrative is also interested in how Lina’s pain stretches out, changing her relationships with the objects and people around her." — M. Lynx Qualey, Electric Lit

"An intriguing short novel . . . A female writer who is losing her sight probes the meaning of language, genre, and the reader's expectations. . . . Meruane fashions a challenging metafiction that ventures into fresh and provocative places." — Kirkus Reviews

One of Literary Hub's "13 Translated Books by Women You Should Read"

"Seeing Red is the triumphant realization of a stunning artistic vision, a novel as black and bitter and bloody (and beautiful) as its central conceit. It’s a novel that’s hard to describe. But you know it’s great when you read it." — Aaron Bady, The Nation

“Susan Sontag famously wrote that there are only two nations: the one of the healthy and the one of the sick. Meruane’s corrosive writing is a meditation on a soul blinded not by illness, but by the peculiar destructive spirit produced by self-pity – that dark feeling familiar to any who has suffered their own body’s treason. In other words, all of us. Seeing Red’s spine is a deliciously perverse love story, loaded with surprising, sickening, wonderful erotic material centred in the eyeballs.” — Álvaro Enrigue, author of Sudden Death, recommending Seeing Red in TANK Magazine's Summer Reading List 2016

"Blindness, both physical and metaphysical, is where Chilean writer Lina Meruane begins Seeing Red, her English language debut. In it, past, present, and future tumble over each other with bloody repetition. From beginning to end, the chaos of time swirls around each word on the page until, like a vaguely luminous mist, it disappears." — Layne Hilyer, The Curator Magazine

"With propulsive language and hallucinatory verve, Lina Meruane explores the relationship between identity and illness. Shifting between New York City and Santiago, between the world of sight and blindness, SEEING RED is a masterclass in taut and poetic storytelling. What Meruane manages in 150 pages is simply miraculous." — Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX (Staff Pick)

"An unsettling and disquieting look at a woman's descent into blindness . . . With a first-person narrative chronicling her own ocular decline, SEEING RED bears witness to the inter- and intrapersonal struggles that force the narrator to make sense of the relationships around her, all while relying upon those very people for support, aid, and comfort. Meruane's gifted prose lends the story both immediacy and persuasiveness." — Jeremy Garber, Powell's Books, Portland, OR (Staff Pick)

"In this fierce work of autofiction, Meruane's Lucina (sometimes called Lina) resists the passive position of patient with “an uppercase No,” and her anger allows a rare and powerful intimacy. Those hoping for a neat and satisfying resolution will be disappointed, but the true shape of illness is neither neat nor satisfying, and Seeing Red excels in expressing the full scale of the horror and essential uncertainty of being betrayed by one’s own body." — Amy Berkowitz, author of Tender Points

"Meruane writes further into, rather than through or around, blindness. Her language pulses with the psychological terror of the body’s betrayal; it pulls at the seams of the self, unleashing something deep within. This is not a fictionalized memoir of transformation and recovery, but a book that burns in your hands, something sharp and terrifying that bites back." — Anna Zalokostas, Full Stop

"Instead of a journey into blindness the immediacy of the situation makes it a journey into understanding and life beyond being able to see......at the core this really is a love story, an exploration of what it means to “unconditionally” love somebody, would a parent actually give up an eye for their child?" — Tony Messenger, Messengers Booker blog

"One of Chile's Top Ten Contemporary Writers . . . Her compelling exploration of this rapid change of events for the young narrator is compelling and disconcerting all at once, making for a fascinating read." — The Culture Trip

"A bristling, staccato torrent of vivid imagery and psychological roilings . . . simultaneously disturbing and lyrical. ...Translator Megan McDowell has an excellent ear for Meruane’s prose and skillfully exposes its darkly humorous veins. Seeing Red is a captivating, multilayered debut from a strong young writer." — Rachel Jagareski, Foreword Reviews

"A brilliant exploration of the human condition and exercise in experimental prose. . . . a subversive and feminist text." — Tara Cheesman-Olmsted, The Rumpus

"A vivid understanding of what it is like to lose one’s sight . . . Disturbing and uncomfortable but so worth the read." — Melissa Beck, The Bookbinder's Daughter

"Meruane is one of the one or two greats in the new generation of Chilean writers who promise to have it all." — Roberto Bolaño

“Meruane’s writing is acid, so corrosive that sometimes sentences dissolve before meeting the end that they deserved.” — Álvaro Enrigue

“An overwhelming novel, formally brave (…) that balances with great talent the search of a personal language with narrative seduction” — Sor Juana Award jury

“A novel where not only the blood pouring from the eyes is palpitating; so is the quality of the literature.” — El País

“A merciless book.” — Sylvia Molloy

“A powerful novel.“ — Federico Falcó

"This book showed no mercy and clawed into my brain. The prose is relentless, the story is haunting, and the fact that Seeing Red is an autobiographical novel makes the main character’s anguish all the more real." — Always Doing

“An authentic novel written not from the edges, but from inside the sick body, with a powerful, intense narrator.” — Gustavo Pablos, Diario La Voz

"[Seeing Red] describes, through sight as metaphor, a world of uncertain horizons opposed to each other...Rather than as a victim, she portrays her narrator with a final effect that reminds the reader of the black humour literature of the last century.” — Stefano Gallerani, Italy

"This livewire of a novel bursts from the narrator’s blood flooded retina in front of our own eyes." — Sofia Fara, Globooks

“Funny and frightening, a swift meditation on vision, memory, the human soul itself. Very cinematic in its execution, bold in its content, Seeing Red ultimately forces us to give good thought to the great wonder and blessing that is a properly functioning body.” — On Art & Aesthetics

“A brilliant exploration of commitment, identity and self-destruction.” — Publishers Weekly

“In Lina Meruane’s searing autobiographical novel Seeing Red, the narrator describes what she saw during an ocular hemorrhage that rendered her blind… As she navigates this new, uncertain existence with her boyfriend—moving together to a new apartment in New York City, visiting family back in Santiago, and undergoing endless, inconclusive medical exams and procedures—Lina perseveres by force of will and a keen intuition that makes her aware of things she was incapable of knowing before she lost her sight.” — Words Without Borders, Lori Feathers

"Astonishing . . . Meruane's authorial gaze is unflinching. Through the mesh of veins, she holds a microscope not only to the condition suffered by her alter ego, but to the ties between the protagonist and those on whom she is forced to depend, ties strained by Lina's history of illness and her loss of sight. Lina resists all attempts to corral her into victimhood and insists on wielding her agency like a weapon. Her manipulations of Ignacio provide a visceral antidote to infantilizing narratives of illness; Lina's behavior is predatory rather than passive, and Seeing Red becomes a searing commentary on the limits of family relationships and the cruelty that, under duress, we are capable of exerting on those we love." — Charlotte Whittle, Los Angeles Times

“Susan Sontag famously wrote that there are only two nations: the one of the healthy and the one of the sick. Meruane’s corrosive writing is a meditation on a soul blinded not by illness, but by the peculiar destructive spirit produced by self-pity – that dark feeling familiar to any who has suffered their own body’s treason. In other words, all of us. Seeing Red’s spine is a deliciously perverse love story, loaded with surprising, sickening, wonderful erotic material centred in the eyeballs.” — Álvaro Enrigue (author of Sudden Death), TANK Magazine Summer Reading List 2016

"An enigmatic mixture of autobiography and fiction . . . The story reveals its truths through immediacy of description—viscous, repulsive, and beautiful." — The New Yorker

"A story told by Meruane with vivid, unflinching language that will occasionally make readers squirm with its beautiful, brutal honesty. . . . Would we, as Lina did, ask our loved one for one of his eyes, thereby making "us equal, turn us into mirror images for the rest of our lives until death?" Might we, in the throes of passion yearn to suck the very eyes out of our lover, as Meruane writes, "to take possession of them on my palate"? These lines make us fidget, no doubt. Maybe that’s because we don’t want to know what emotions hide in the dark corners of our own hearts." — Beatriz Terrazas, Dallas Morning News

"Intense, physical, flipping from sensual to gory, Seeing Red is a book about degeneration and offers an exhilarating 'fresh eye', as the author puts it, on what it is to be alive." — Joanna Walsh, The National

"Blurring the lines between fiction and memoir, Meruane’s first novel translated into English explores mortality, identity, and personal transformation. . . . This is a penetrating autobiographical novel, and for English-Language readers this work serves as a stunning introduction to a remarkable author." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"From this moment of darkness, the narrative hurtles forward, obsessed by Lina’s physical and emotional pains, which are examined with a vibrant, Kahloesque fascination. The narrative is also interested in how Lina’s pain stretches out, changing her relationships with the objects and people around her." — M. Lynx Qualey, Electric Lit

"The writing is jagged, sharp, and direct, serving as a counterpoint to the careful movements and stillness prescribed for our heroine. Short chapters of dense blocks of text shape the novel into a bristling, staccato torrent of vivid imagery and psychological roilings… Lina’s chronicle is simultaneously disturbing and lyrical." — Rachel Jagareski, Foreword Reviews

“Seeing Red is not only a story about becoming blind, it is a story about fear, trust, and the limits of love. The reader will walk on these pages as if blind, surrounded by sharp objects that inflict pain, nostalgia, loneliness… it comes to life with a strong and beautiful translation by Megan McDowell, who renders and magnifies Lina Meruane´s visceral and blinding language.” — Sylvia Aguilar-Zéleny, El Paso Times

"Meruane is considered the best contemporary Chilean novelist, but she’s really one of the best contemporary novelists overall, and you’ll learn why if you read this harrowing semi-autobiographical account of an academician who suffers a stroke that leaves her temporarily blind. Yes, it’s an account of frailty that uses blindness as metaphor, but more than that, it’s a scorching examination of how being utterly dependent on someone—even someone you deeply love—can make you a monster." — Literary Hub

One of Literary Hub's "13 Translated Books by Women You Should Read"

"Mesmerizing sentences pile high in this short book, where far more is happening than immediately seems. The failures of the body are set alongside the feats of the imagination to brilliant effect." — San Francisco Chronicle

"Seeing Red is the triumphant realization of a stunning artistic vision, a novel as black and bitter and bloody (and beautiful) as its central conceit. It’s a novel that’s hard to describe. But you know it’s great when you read it." — Aaron Bady, The Nation

"An intriguing short novel . . . A female writer who is losing her sight probes the meaning of language, genre, and the reader's expectations. . . . Meruane fashions a challenging metafiction that ventures into fresh and provocative places." — Kirkus Reviews

“In an autobiographical work full of discomfort, Meruane spares nothing negative, and Seeing Red is astounding and essential for it." — Greg Walklin, Colorado Review

"The prose, the syntax pulses with life and color. The sentences spill over with anger, nastiness, love and desperation." — David Naimon, Between the Covers

"A precise, gorgeously crafted autofiction that explores illness and disability, and the fears and logic of a person who's been betrayed by their own body but refuses to take on the role of a passive victim. This is a swift, dark, vicious book. I've never read anything quite like it. —Cari Luna, author of The Revolution of Every Day

“Meruane’s ability to take readers into the experience of sight loss is extraordinary. Her descriptions are fresh, immediate and memorable, inviting comparisons with passages from Nobel Prize winner José Saramago’s great novel Blindness.” — Ann Morgan, A Year of Reading the World

“Lina Meruane… writes with visceral intensity and a relentless energy that lays bare the violence of the everyday… at once nightmarish and grippingly realistic.” — Helen, bookseller at Drawn & Quarterly (Staff Pick: Best of 2016)

“Aided by the fine translation from Megan McDowell, newcomers to Meruane's spare prose and caustic wit... will admire the strange force and clarity of this novel that is as painstaking as it is wryly painful.” — Forrest Roth, The Collagist

"A startling, honest portrayal of one woman’s descent into blindness and depression, and the lines of love that float out toward her, 'spiraling and elastic,' that she pushes away, and slowly learns to reach toward. . . . Part meditation, part thriller, Seeing Red is a remarkable work showcasing the talents of a fine writer." — Laura Farmer, Cedar Rapids Gazette

"Stunning . . . As intimate as it is objective, the novel shows how blocked eyesight leads to a heightening of Lucina’s other senses, especially those of perspective, empathy, and, above all, language. Seeing nothing but envisioning everything in immediate, hypnotic detail, Lucina visits [Santiago], undergoes a grueling operation, and watches her romance grow from mere love to a literal—if necessary—eye-for-an-eye devotion." — Laurie G., Politics & Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC (Staff Pick)

"With propulsive language and hallucinatory verve, Lina Meruane explores the relationship between identity and illness. Shifting between New York City and Santiago, between the world of sight and blindness, SEEING RED is a masterclass in taut and poetic storytelling. What Meruane manages in 150 pages is simply miraculous." — Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX (Staff Pick)

"An unsettling and disquieting look at a woman's descent into blindness . . . With a first-person narrative chronicling her own ocular decline, SEEING RED bears witness to the inter- and intrapersonal struggles that force the narrator to make sense of the relationships around her, all while relying upon those very people for support, aid, and comfort. Meruane's gifted prose lends the story both immediacy and persuasiveness." — Jeremy Garber, Powell's Books, Portland, OR (Staff Pick)

"In this fierce work of autofiction, Meruane's Lucina (sometimes called Lina) resists the passive position of patient with “an uppercase No,” and her anger allows a rare and powerful intimacy. Those hoping for a neat and satisfying resolution will be disappointed, but the true shape of illness is neither neat nor satisfying, and Seeing Red excels in expressing the full scale of the horror and essential uncertainty of being betrayed by one’s own body." — Amy Berkowitz, author of Tender Points

"Meruane writes further into, rather than through or around, blindness. Her language pulses with the psychological terror of the body’s betrayal; it pulls at the seams of the self, unleashing something deep within. This is not a fictionalized memoir of transformation and recovery, but a book that burns in your hands, something sharp and terrifying that bites back." — Anna Zalokostas, Full Stop

"Instead of a journey into blindness the immediacy of the situation makes it a journey into understanding and life beyond being able to see......at the core this really is a love story, an exploration of what it means to “unconditionally” love somebody, would a parent actually give up an eye for their child?" — Tony Messenger, Messengers Booker blog

"One of Chile's Top Ten Contemporary Writers . . . Her compelling exploration of this rapid change of events for the young narrator is compelling and disconcerting all at once, making for a fascinating read." — The Culture Trip

"A bristling, staccato torrent of vivid imagery and psychological roilings . . . simultaneously disturbing and lyrical. ...Translator Megan McDowell has an excellent ear for Meruane’s prose and skillfully exposes its darkly humorous veins. Seeing Red is a captivating, multilayered debut from a strong young writer." — Rachel Jagareski, Foreword Reviews

"A brilliant exploration of the human condition and exercise in experimental prose. . . . a subversive and feminist text." — Tara Cheesman-Olmsted, The Rumpus

"A vivid understanding of what it is like to lose one’s sight . . . Disturbing and uncomfortable but so worth the read." — Melissa Beck, The Bookbinder's Daughter

"SEEING RED introduces an exciting and vital new voice into the English language, a visceral examination of the fragility and determination of a woman faced with the unknown." — Stephen Sparks, Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA

"Meruane's voice is searing." — Chris Schahfer, Chicago Center for Literature and Photography

"The reader will walk on these pages as if blind, surrounded by sharp objects that inflict pain, nostalgia, loneliness. Seeing Red is not only a story about becoming blind, it is a story about fear, trust, and the limits of love." — Sylvia Aguilar, Un Alma Cercana

"This livewire of a novel bursts from the narrator’s blood flooded retina in front of our own eyes." — Sofia Fara

"Meruane is one of the one or two greats in the new generation of Chilean writers who promise to have it all . . . [her] prose has great literary force: it emerges from the hammer blows of conscience, but also from the ungraspable, and from pain."—Roberto Bolaño

"Meruane’s writing is acid, so corrosive, that sometimes sentences dissolve before meeting the end that they deserved.” — Álvaro Enrique, author of Sudden Death

"A merciless book." —Sylvia Molloy, author of Signs of Borges

"When a book is so special, nothing one says about it can do full justice to its quality. One wants to use the review to send a message to the reader in capital letters: 'Don't waste more time; buy the book, read it, and then tell me what you thought.'" — Luiz Paulo Fasccioli, Rascunho (Brazil)

"Lina Meruane avoids sentimentality with a burst of genius: she resorts to black humor and closes the book without closing it." — Tiago Ferro, Peixe Eletrico (Brazil)

"A powerful novel." — Federico Falco, one of Granta's Best Young Spanish Novelists

"[Seeing Red] describes, through sight as metaphor, a world of uncertain horizons opposed to each other...Rather than as a victim, she portrays her narrator with a final effect that reminds the reader of the black humor literature of the last century." — Stefano Gallerani, Il Manifesto (Italy)

“A raw, sexy, visceral and sometimes brutal account of a woman losing her sight and it explores the immediate effects on her relationships with her lover, family, surroundings and her own body with an unflinching gaze.” — Kirsty Mcluckie, The Scotsman

“A brilliant exploration of commitment, identity and self-destruction.” — Publishers Weekly