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Eucalyptus
An Amazon.ca Best Book of 2013: Top 100/Editors' Pick
"Captivating . . . a story of blood, hatred, vengeance, and politics."—Radio-Canada
Alberto Ventura has travelled to Chile to attend the funeral of his father, Roberto. A man hated and loved both by his family and the local people, Roberto was known in the village as an enigma, a rake, a controversial boss, and a quick-tempered thug. It's said that he has destroyed the family land by mass-farming eucalyptus trees, and he's known to have killed a local boy in a fit of rage. Yet as Alberto delves into the rumours that obscure his father's death—was it natural causes, vengeance, murder, or self-sacrifice?—he finds the reputation at stake is his own.
In a breath-catching story of race and identity, rife with Chile's centuries-old tension between natives and local landowners, Mauricio Segura's Eucalyptus investigates the flashpoint of one village community in an expanding world.
"Well-executed, with a cinematic quality and keen visual sense … Segura locates the political through the personal in a way that is uncommon."—Stephen Sparks, Green Apple Books
"A solid novelist of infallible instincts."—L'Actualité
"Captivating . . . a story of blood, hatred, vengeance, and politics."—Radio-Canada
Alberto Ventura has travelled to Chile to attend the funeral of his father, Roberto. A man hated and loved both by his family and the local people, Roberto was known in the village as an enigma, a rake, a controversial boss, and a quick-tempered thug. It's said that he has destroyed the family land by mass-farming eucalyptus trees, and he's known to have killed a local boy in a fit of rage. Yet as Alberto delves into the rumours that obscure his father's death—was it natural causes, vengeance, murder, or self-sacrifice?—he finds the reputation at stake is his own.
In a breath-catching story of race and identity, rife with Chile's centuries-old tension between natives and local landowners, Mauricio Segura's Eucalyptus investigates the flashpoint of one village community in an expanding world.
"Well-executed, with a cinematic quality and keen visual sense … Segura locates the political through the personal in a way that is uncommon."—Stephen Sparks, Green Apple Books
"A solid novelist of infallible instincts."—L'Actualité
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 23, 2010
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About the author
Mauricio Segura
9 books3 followersNé à Temuco, au Chili, Mauricio Segura est arrivé au Canada à l’âge de cinq ans. Romancier et journaliste, il fait paraître, au Boréal, Côte-des-Nègres (1998), Bouche-à-bouche (2003), Eucalyptus (2010), Oscar (2016) et Viral (2020). Il œuvre dans le milieu de la télévision à titre de scénariste et collabore au magazine L’Inconvénient.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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June 6, 20188.5/10
Memory and imagination only exacerbate suffering, become prisons themselves.
This is a novel of homecoming -- and implied in every homecoming is the act of desertion. What is it that one left behind? What is it one hopes to return to? Somewhere between the act of desertion and return lies the truth one tells oneself. But for some, there is no truth at all, since memory becomes corroded, and is shaped by all the lies that each participant has told him/herself in order to survive. Each lie is a different coating on the memory; and as with each coat, a new garment is spun, so that the skin takes on a different hue, a different weight. What one remembers, in the end, is often not at all what happened in the first place.
This is also a novel of invasion -- and implied in each invasion is the act of concession. What is it that one yearns for when one imposes one's will on another person, country, and takes possession? What is it one concedes to, when there is no way out? Does one concede willingly or does one do it with bitterness, with rancour, with vengeance in one's heart?
Layers upon layers of dusty memory fight in the mind of Alberto, the itinerant son, who returns home, too late, and only just in time to pay respects to his father at his funeral. The (physical) distance he had put between himself and his father seems only to grow, the closer he gets to him geographically, and so opens the conundrum of memory: why did I remember him the way I did? What did I want to keep sacred, whether in love or hate?
There is a line of wonderful symbolism which pulls the story along, like a child pulling one of those wooden toys on a string, that clack rhythmically along behind the child, keeping pace: the volcano, keeping pace with the rhythm of nature and all life, and occasionally lending its voice; but ultimately disgorging a silence greater than sound, for ... ... the volcano [kept] sleeping far off, stately and peaceful.
In this deeply-entangled exploration of memory and homecoming ... somewhere between austere truth and outright lies, there lies a deeply complicated answer for all those who think they have all the answers.
Memory and imagination only exacerbate suffering, become prisons themselves.
This is a novel of homecoming -- and implied in every homecoming is the act of desertion. What is it that one left behind? What is it one hopes to return to? Somewhere between the act of desertion and return lies the truth one tells oneself. But for some, there is no truth at all, since memory becomes corroded, and is shaped by all the lies that each participant has told him/herself in order to survive. Each lie is a different coating on the memory; and as with each coat, a new garment is spun, so that the skin takes on a different hue, a different weight. What one remembers, in the end, is often not at all what happened in the first place.
This is also a novel of invasion -- and implied in each invasion is the act of concession. What is it that one yearns for when one imposes one's will on another person, country, and takes possession? What is it one concedes to, when there is no way out? Does one concede willingly or does one do it with bitterness, with rancour, with vengeance in one's heart?
Layers upon layers of dusty memory fight in the mind of Alberto, the itinerant son, who returns home, too late, and only just in time to pay respects to his father at his funeral. The (physical) distance he had put between himself and his father seems only to grow, the closer he gets to him geographically, and so opens the conundrum of memory: why did I remember him the way I did? What did I want to keep sacred, whether in love or hate?
There is a line of wonderful symbolism which pulls the story along, like a child pulling one of those wooden toys on a string, that clack rhythmically along behind the child, keeping pace: the volcano, keeping pace with the rhythm of nature and all life, and occasionally lending its voice; but ultimately disgorging a silence greater than sound, for ... ... the volcano [kept] sleeping far off, stately and peaceful.
In this deeply-entangled exploration of memory and homecoming ... somewhere between austere truth and outright lies, there lies a deeply complicated answer for all those who think they have all the answers.
May 3, 2025
a quiet exploration of a father’s death, through enigmatic layers of memory and homecoming. the writing is lovely.
August 23, 2025
we are all from somewhere only as long as the memory holds
October 29, 2013
Mauricio Segura's gorgeously-written Eucalyptus helped me unearth memories of living in Chile and taught me to be a better writer. Not bad for 150 pages. For thoughts on his fantastic use of language and a few insights into my international childhood, read the full review at A Geography of Reading.
April 17, 2011
Alberto retourne au Chili pour enterrer son père. Là, il redécouvre sa famille, son pays d'origine, et surtout son père. Chaque connaissance lui racontera des brides de la vie de son père, et bientôt il se demandera comment celui-ci est mort.
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September 11, 2016Shades of Rashomon, everyone has a different version of the story. A father's death brings out everyone's feelings and grudges.
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October 22, 2023Je ne peux pas donner de note à ce roman parce que je l'ai trouvé bien écrit et très bien construit, mais je n'ai pas aimé le sentiment qu'il m'a laissé.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews