What is the relationship between an author and their editor? What influence does one exert over the other? In A Christmas Story, which takes us back to Santiago de Chile at the turn of the century, we witness the formation of an invisible triangle between these two interlocutors and the text that you hold in your hands – a narrative with its beams exposed. The reader is granted the rare opportunity to observe the individual and subjective nature of this dialectic: how fragile and particular – but also how strong – it can become. In Megan McDowell’s brilliantly playful translation and interventions, the story of the relationship between a writer and his editor takes on an extra layer of meaning, revealing how conversations and doubts begin to overflow beyond the page, the text, the work itself, forging bonds that no longer cling to literature alone, but to life.
