Kamchatka Read online

  For a long time I lived in the place I call Kamchatka, a place that looks a little like the real Kamchatka (because of the cold, the volcanoes, the remoteness) but it is a place that doesn’t really exist, because some places cannot be found on any map. Now that I have learned the importance of goodbyes, I would like to say goodbye to it. I had spent all those years there before I found the empty packet of Jockeys again, but now that I have found it, now it has appeared as I told my story for the nth time, I don’t need Kamchatka any more, I no longer need the security I once felt being far from everything, unreachable, amid the eternal snows. The time has come for me to be where I am again, to be truly here, all of me, to stop surviving and start living.

  ‘Let’s go home,’ grandpa said, ‘it’s time.’

  Papá has gone to the car to fetch the game of Risk. He brings it over to me, hands it to me with a smile: ‘What an idiot, I almost forgot!’ Then he kisses me and says I love you very much, his voice sounding like Narciso Ibañez Menta again: papá always gets kind of sombre when he has to say something important. Then I feel his stubble scrape my cheek and he whispers in my ear: he says a lot of things, but what I most remember is ‘Kamchatka’, because ‘Kamchatka’ is the last word from his lips; because it sums up all the others. Last words are important – Goethe’s were ‘Light! More light!’ – you have to pay attention to them.

  They get into the car and drive away. I run behind the green bubble until I can’t run any more. They do not turn to wave; they don’t want to turn into pillars of salt.

  Since then, whenever the game turned ugly, I have holed up in Kamchatka and I survived. And although at first I thought that papá and I had left a game unfinished, I’ve since realized that we didn’t. He told me his secret and in doing so made me his ally, and every time I’ve played since he has been there beside me, and when things turned ugly we’d hang on to Kamchatka and in the end everything would be fine. Because Kamchatka was where you needed to be. Because Kamchatka was the place from where you fought back.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  In writing Kamchatka, I have relied on invaluable information from a number of writers to whom I would like to express my gratitude.

  My adventures in biology I owe in large part to Fritjof Capra’s The Web of Life (1997) and Ernst Mayr’s This is Biology (1997). My journey through the heavens I owe to John North and The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology (1994). I have also drawn on Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time (1988).

  For the politics and history of the Argentina in which Harry and I grew up, I have relied on Volume II of Eduardo Anguita and Martón caparrís’ history, La voluntad (1998), and Miguel Bonasso’s Diario de un clandestino (2000).

  The translation of Herodotus I used is Robin Waterfield’s: The Histories (Oxford University Press, 1998).

  The quotation from The Odyssey is taken from Robert Fagles’ translation, published by Penguin in 1996. The line of Margaret Atwood’s appears in her novel The Blind Assassin (Bloomsbury, 2000). I found the Emerson quotation in a speech he gave at Harvard in 1837. The quotation from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’ Arthur is from the Penguin English Library edition of 1981. And the Lawrence Durrell letters I quote were taken from Jorge Fondebrider’s fascinating book, La Buenos Aires ajena (2000).

  I am grateful, too, for the support of Amaya Elézcano and all of the team at Alfaguara España.

  I dedicate this book to my children, Oriana, Agustina, Milena and Bruno, in the hope that this book forms part of that same, marvellous legacy.

  A BLACK CAT READING GROUP GUIDE

  Kamchatka

  Marcelo Figueras

  ABOUT THIS GUIDE

  We hope that these discussion questions will enhance your reading group’s exploration of Marcelo Figueras’s Kamchatka. They are meant to stimulate discussion, offer new viewpoints and enrich your enjoyment of the book.

  More reading group guides and additional information, including summaries, author tours and author sites for other fine Black Cat titles may be found on our Web site, www.groveatlantic.com.

  QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. Kamchatka is about a family that goes into hiding when a military coup overthrows the government of Argentina. Do you think this is a political book?

  2. The novel is narrated from the point of view of Harry, the oldest son of the Vincentes. What sort of a narrator is Harry? Is he reliable? How does his point of view shift throughout the novel?

  3. Discuss the way that Kamchatka is organized—not just by chapters, but by sections. What do the section titles refer to? What are the lessons Harry thinks you can learn about life from biology, geology, language, astronomy, and history?

  4. Early in the book, Harry says, “In the end, we always are what we once were” (p. 5). What does Kamchatka say about the possibilities for change in human lives, or in life in general? What does Harry think changes, and what stays the same?

  5. Harry repeatedly mentions his theories of time (“Time is weird,” he says often). In his first school, in Buenos Aires, Harry is taught that time and history are linear: “before our virgin eyes unfolded the history of humankind, the history of which, for better or worse, we were at that time the culmination” (p. 12). What does Harry think about how time works? What in his life would make him come up with these theories of time?

  6. “My obsession with justice infuriated her,” says Harry, about his mother (p. 37). What is a child’s sense of justice? Why was Harry’s mother infuriated? Do we get a sense of Harry’s parents’ ideas of justice?

  7. On page 39, Harry describes how the experiences of childhood form our politics. Do you agree with him? Can you remember instances from your childhood that you feel formed your sense of politics?

  8. When Harry discovers the book about Houdini, it provides not just a pseudonym but a mission. Harry is constantly reminding others that Houdini was not a magician, but an escape artist. What does Harry see as the difference?

  9. Harry and the Midget entertain themselves for most of the time they are at the quinta. What roles do games and fantasy play in the boys’ lives? Are their games different than those of other children?

  10. How is Harry introduced to religion? What is his understanding of it? How is the Midget’s relationship to religion different?

  11. Discuss the presence of the toads in the backyard pool. Why do Harry and the Midget build their “reverse diving board”? What do they hope to achieve? Are they successful? What do you think the toads represent in the novel?

  12. Kamchatka is mostly told from a child’s point of view, but occasionally we get information from the narrator at a later time. Find one of these examples and explain what we learn and why the author has chosen to tell the story this way.

  13. When we meet Harry’s maternal grandmother, she’s not a very likable figure. Later, though, he says, “My grandmother says that mamá saved her life” (p. 119). What does he mean?

  14. What is Harry’s first impression of Lucas? How does that impression change? How does their relationship build, and why is Lucas important to Harry? Why, when they are talking, will Lucas sometimes say, “Wrong question”?

  15. Think about the different myths and stories that Harry has read, from The Odyssey to King Arthur to Superman. What does Harry learn from these stories? How do they affect how he sees himself and the world?

  16. Do you think Harry sees his parents accurately, as real people? Does he understand them?

  17. Who adjusts better to living in hiding, Harry or the Midget? At the end of the novel, Harry’s mother says, “But if you build a wall to protect yourself from the world outside, you end up realizing you’ve shut yourself in. Don’t shut yourself in, darling. It’s better to suffer than to feel nothing at all” (p. 281-82). Where are some examples in the novel of Harry shutting himself in?

  18. Discuss the father/son dynamics in the novel. What is Harry’s relationship with his father like? What happens when they are on the boat at abuelo ’s house? W
hy don’t they tell anyone what really happened?

  19. When Harry runs away for the day and returns to Buenos Aires to find Bertuccio, Bertuccio’s mother lies and says he’s not home. Why? What does Harry learn after this trip?

  20. Kamchatka is both a real place and a region in the game Risk. It is also the last word Harry’s father ever says to him. Discuss the role of Kamchatka in the book and what it symbolizes to Harry. Why do you think the author chose Kamchatka for the book’s title?

  Suggested Further Reading

  The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander; Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta; The Vagrants by Yiyun Li; The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunuz; How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Saša Stanišić; Something Red by Jennifer Gilmore; The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli; Train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu; The Appointment by Herta Müller