Arturo Fontaine

When it was discovered that the writer Teresa Wilms (1893–1921), married with children, had a passionate love affair with Vicho Balmaceda, she was confined to a convent, from which she escaped. She traveled to Buenos Aires accompanied by Vicente Huidobro and later lived in Madrid and Paris, where she took her own life. She was 28 years old.

This novel delves into that love story, which scandalized society and shaped destinies. It was woven together from various documents—some from Teresa herself and others—but above all, from the stories the author heard firsthand from his own relatives, direct witnesses of that time and those real lives, here reimagined in a prose that entertains, captivates, enlightens, and moves.

"No one represents contemporary Chilean narrative better than Arturo Fontaine… the tensions, struggles, uncertainties, loyalties, and betrayals of a society in flux." Carlos Fuentes, Babelia, El País

"Hearing his voice is the star of the new Chilean novels." David Gallagher, The Times Literary Supplement

"The voice of the year… For the first time… Santiago acquires its own voice… One of the most outstanding Latin American narrators today." Camilo Marks, La Época

"In this novel, an era, a woman, and a desire come to life. It tells the story of a rebellious impulse that finds its course in female liberation, but whose corollary is loss and sacrifice. A metaphor for rebellion that leads only to death, for love that withers in illness and addiction, for women’s literature and motherhood punished in the name of maintaining a certain social order." Sonia Montecino

"The subtlest swings of a woman's heart and an era. A moving novel where there is only truth." Carla Guelfenbein

"An unputdownable book once you start reading. With subtle humor, it offers a sharp portrayal of a time oscillating between tradition and modernity, brimming with change and challenges, especially for women." Lucía Santa Cruz

"Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century Chile, Y entonces Teresa recreates a story of love and agony, masterfully revealing a way of narrating and writing that we thought was lost." Raúl Zurita

“One of the book’s most intriguing features is that its characters laugh a lot – more than in any other novel I can think of. Fontaine has turned laughter into a supplementary language, a complement to the words the characters exchange, a gauge of their emotions.” David Gallagher, Times Literary Suplement

 “Fontaine, who is also a poet, clearly shares Gustave Flaubert’s view that “a good sentence in prose should be like a Good line in poetry, unchangeable, rhythmic and sonorous”. There is great music to Fontaine’s sentences as he skilfully reconstructs the Chile of the era, with its cities, farms and turns of phrase.” David Gallagher, Times Literary Suplement

“And then Teresa sets forth a doctrine I share. It is a lie that love is blind; what is blind is the absence of love... One must have traversed the entire twentieth-century novel in order to shape a book that narrates a tragic life… while at the same time presenting a plausible sketch of the emotion of love.” Christopher Domínguez. Letras Libres. 

“Fontaine is attentive to the marks of time. This care extends to the language itself, slightly archaic… A complex and vital portrait of Teresa Wilms and a convincing representation of her passionate relationship with Vicho… The book moves at a good pace. It shifts between several narrators, which gives the text a conversational quality.” Pedro Gandolfo, El Mercurio

“The slow and inexorable itinerary of a drama with no return, doubly cruel, because while the passion never faded, the illusions surrounding it shattered and ended up taking their revenge on both her and him. A moving tale.” Héctor Soto, La Tercera