What do you think?
Rate this book
Retorno a la Patagonia
Cuando se fue, Chatwin dejaba unas pocas páginas escritas a medias con otro de los grandes nómadas de nuestra literatura contemporánea, Paul Theroux, y unas cuantas fotos. Retorno a la Patagonia es una gran iniciación al viaje, uno de esos libros capaces de generar la inquietud inexorable del despazamiento.
116 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
5 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
About the author
Bruce Chatwin
68 books679 followersCharles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982).
In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map of the area of South America called Patagonia, which she had painted. "I've always wanted to go there," Bruce told her. "So have I," she replied, "go there for me." Two years later in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and reached Patagonia a month later. When he arrived, he left the newspaper with a telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." He spent six months in the area, a trip which resulted in the book In Patagonia (1977). This work established his reputation as a travel writer. Later, however, residents in the region contradicted the account of events depicted in Chatwin's book. It was the first time in his career, but not the last, that conversations and characters which Chatwin presented as fact were alleged to have been fictionalised.
Later works included a novel based on the slave trade, The Viceroy of Ouidah, which he researched with extended stays in Benin, West Africa. For The Songlines (1987), a work combining fiction and non-fiction, Chatwin went to Australia. He studied the culture to express how the songs of the Aborigines are a cross between a creation myth, an atlas and an Aboriginal man's personal story. He also related the travelling expressed in The Songlines to his own travels and the long nomadic past of humans. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, his novel On the Black Hill (1982) was set closer to home, in the hill farms of the Welsh Borders. It focuses on the relationship between twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin, who grow up isolated from the course of twentieth century history. Utz (1988), was a novel about the obsession that leads people to collect. Set in Prague, the novel details the life and death of Kaspar Utz, a man obsessed with his collection of Meissen porcelain.
Chatwin was working on a number of new ideas for future novels at the time of his death from AIDS in 1989, including a transcontinental epic, provisionally titled Lydia Livingstone.
In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map of the area of South America called Patagonia, which she had painted. "I've always wanted to go there," Bruce told her. "So have I," she replied, "go there for me." Two years later in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and reached Patagonia a month later. When he arrived, he left the newspaper with a telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." He spent six months in the area, a trip which resulted in the book In Patagonia (1977). This work established his reputation as a travel writer. Later, however, residents in the region contradicted the account of events depicted in Chatwin's book. It was the first time in his career, but not the last, that conversations and characters which Chatwin presented as fact were alleged to have been fictionalised.
Later works included a novel based on the slave trade, The Viceroy of Ouidah, which he researched with extended stays in Benin, West Africa. For The Songlines (1987), a work combining fiction and non-fiction, Chatwin went to Australia. He studied the culture to express how the songs of the Aborigines are a cross between a creation myth, an atlas and an Aboriginal man's personal story. He also related the travelling expressed in The Songlines to his own travels and the long nomadic past of humans. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, his novel On the Black Hill (1982) was set closer to home, in the hill farms of the Welsh Borders. It focuses on the relationship between twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin, who grow up isolated from the course of twentieth century history. Utz (1988), was a novel about the obsession that leads people to collect. Set in Prague, the novel details the life and death of Kaspar Utz, a man obsessed with his collection of Meissen porcelain.
Chatwin was working on a number of new ideas for future novels at the time of his death from AIDS in 1989, including a transcontinental epic, provisionally titled Lydia Livingstone.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
August 6, 2025
Bruce Chatwin e Paul Theroux tinham já dois livros sobre a Patagónia quando decidiram escrever este a quatro mãos. “Na Patagónia” e “O Velho Expresso da Patagónia”.
Mais do que um pequeno livro de viagens, este livro é um livro de sugestões de outros livros de viagens, com indicações muito interessantes destes dois autores.
A Patagónia, pelo seu simbolismo e, até, misticismo, acaba por servir de “cola” de todas estas leituras dos dois autores, levando-nos numa bonita viagem.
Opinião mais detalhada em video:
https://abibliotecadajoao.blogspot.co...
Mais do que um pequeno livro de viagens, este livro é um livro de sugestões de outros livros de viagens, com indicações muito interessantes destes dois autores.
A Patagónia, pelo seu simbolismo e, até, misticismo, acaba por servir de “cola” de todas estas leituras dos dois autores, levando-nos numa bonita viagem.
Opinião mais detalhada em video:
https://abibliotecadajoao.blogspot.co...
April 21, 2025
Breve (e godibile) dialogo alternato ed a distanza tra due viaggiatori che raccontano uno dei luoghi più leggendari che hanno percorso entrambi ma non insieme: in questo senso si tratta veramente _per entrambi_ di in "ritorno".
May 22, 2017
Rare little book that I happened upon this weekend, although to be frank, if you've read the parent volumes, then there's really not a great deal here that is new. Bruce Chatwin's "In Patagonia" is widely credited with kicking off the modern genre of travel literature, a genre that has gone from strength to strength in the past four decades and now literally spans the globe. Paul Theroux, of course, is one of its most accomplished practitioners, with his own Patagonia book also regarded as a classic of its kind.
I'm not sure what story lies behind the genesis of this book, which is short enough to have the flavour of an extended lecture at say the Royal Geographical Society or some such London venue. The illustrations are a nice touch. Beyond that, it's the usual melange of familiar stories - Charley Milward the Sailor (probably the most influential great-uncle in all travel writing!) and his famous scrap of mylodon skin, Darwin and WH Hudson, Butch and Sundance, Welsh migrants singing the Eisteddfod in the middle of the windblown wasteland, and always looming like shadows, the vanished race of giants of Tierra del Fuego. To counter this particular flavour of "orientalism", I found Francisco Coloane's short stories to be a good antidote.
I'm not sure what story lies behind the genesis of this book, which is short enough to have the flavour of an extended lecture at say the Royal Geographical Society or some such London venue. The illustrations are a nice touch. Beyond that, it's the usual melange of familiar stories - Charley Milward the Sailor (probably the most influential great-uncle in all travel writing!) and his famous scrap of mylodon skin, Darwin and WH Hudson, Butch and Sundance, Welsh migrants singing the Eisteddfod in the middle of the windblown wasteland, and always looming like shadows, the vanished race of giants of Tierra del Fuego. To counter this particular flavour of "orientalism", I found Francisco Coloane's short stories to be a good antidote.
Read
September 15, 2024🥰❄️
July 4, 2025
In my opinion this tiny book is largely a waste of good trees
June 22, 2012
Paul TherouxBruce Chatwin
This small nugget of a book (very old edition, with an endearing illustration of a horseback rider stamped between all the sections - thanks Brooklyn Public Library!) made a great travel companion in South America. Beyond their basic premise of Patagonia as a metaphor for the most distant possible place, it was fascinating too to read the excerpts they assemble from Darwin, Magellan, and other travelers' notes on their impressions of a land and people they knew nothing about and took months of dangerous travel to reach. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like that.
This small nugget of a book (very old edition, with an endearing illustration of a horseback rider stamped between all the sections - thanks Brooklyn Public Library!) made a great travel companion in South America. Beyond their basic premise of Patagonia as a metaphor for the most distant possible place, it was fascinating too to read the excerpts they assemble from Darwin, Magellan, and other travelers' notes on their impressions of a land and people they knew nothing about and took months of dangerous travel to reach. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like that.
February 4, 2013
A good book to complete a Patagonian trilogy started by Chatwin (In Patagonia) and Theroux (The old patagonian express).
It basically repeats some of the most interesting insights of the two books (the patagonian myths, Butch Cassidy etc.) with some deeper notes.
A short and easy read made by two of the most famous travellers-writers of our era about a land full of legends and mistery.
It basically repeats some of the most interesting insights of the two books (the patagonian myths, Butch Cassidy etc.) with some deeper notes.
A short and easy read made by two of the most famous travellers-writers of our era about a land full of legends and mistery.
August 8, 2017
3 stelle e ½.
Non particolarmente significativo.
Dopo aver letto "In Patagonia", più che esaustivo, questo è perdibile.
Non particolarmente significativo.
Dopo aver letto "In Patagonia", più che esaustivo, questo è perdibile.
Read
February 22, 2018The Story: Two of the world's most well-written travelers reflect on their own visits to Patagonia, drawing on personal memories to shape the narrative of this 60-page pocket book. Theroux chased train tracks from Massachusetts to the tip of the continent in "The Old Patagonia Express" and Chatwin went in search of unusual tales for "In Patagonia." Using references from these and other pieces of literature, history and legend, they illuminate over a thousand years of the region's mysterious appeal.
The Locations: Patagonia, Chile
The Review: Confession - I love to hate for these two writers for their annoyingly observant, perfectly clever travelogues. Yet the conversation carried on in "Revisited" aims to do nothing more than entertain. For once, neither man comes across as arrogant; instead, both speak of an impassioned curiosity for Patagonia. And I am bound to be intrigued because (damn it, they've done it again) Chatwin and Theroux refuse to let readers settle for less than total, blithe immersion in a foreign location.
The Locations: Patagonia, Chile
The Review: Confession - I love to hate for these two writers for their annoyingly observant, perfectly clever travelogues. Yet the conversation carried on in "Revisited" aims to do nothing more than entertain. For once, neither man comes across as arrogant; instead, both speak of an impassioned curiosity for Patagonia. And I am bound to be intrigued because (damn it, they've done it again) Chatwin and Theroux refuse to let readers settle for less than total, blithe immersion in a foreign location.
July 26, 2025
O que me levou a ler e a regozijar este livro?
O que há na Patagónia?
O que nos leva à Patagónia?
Ah, o Fim do Mundo. A Terra do Fogo. O Estreito de Fernão Magalhães.
Mas o que nos atrai nessa terra árida e despida no fim do Continente Americano?
Quem vive lá? Os descendentes dos foragidos Butch Cassidy e Sundance Kid que inteorizamos terem a figura de Paul Newman e Robert Redford?
O que há lá? A alma de Luís Sepulveda? Os restos do Beagle que transportou o jovem Darwin?
Animais pré-históricos como Brontossauros com pêlos?
Porque não perguntas a 2 mestres viajantes como Bruce Chatwin (quem melhor) e Paul Theroux?
Ler este livro é ficar agarrado até à última página escutando 2 grandes amigos conversando sobre as suas viagens, imagino ao sabor do vento, aquecidos por uma fogueira com uma caneca de café na mão e água-de-fogo caseira a arranhar a garganta e deixar o tempo passar lento como o tempo das planícies da longínqua Patagónia.
Sublime.
O que há na Patagónia?
O que nos leva à Patagónia?
Ah, o Fim do Mundo. A Terra do Fogo. O Estreito de Fernão Magalhães.
Mas o que nos atrai nessa terra árida e despida no fim do Continente Americano?
Quem vive lá? Os descendentes dos foragidos Butch Cassidy e Sundance Kid que inteorizamos terem a figura de Paul Newman e Robert Redford?
O que há lá? A alma de Luís Sepulveda? Os restos do Beagle que transportou o jovem Darwin?
Animais pré-históricos como Brontossauros com pêlos?
Porque não perguntas a 2 mestres viajantes como Bruce Chatwin (quem melhor) e Paul Theroux?
Ler este livro é ficar agarrado até à última página escutando 2 grandes amigos conversando sobre as suas viagens, imagino ao sabor do vento, aquecidos por uma fogueira com uma caneca de café na mão e água-de-fogo caseira a arranhar a garganta e deixar o tempo passar lento como o tempo das planícies da longínqua Patagónia.
Sublime.
March 12, 2018
Pubblicato nel 1985 in occasione di una conferenza, scritto a quattro mani, «Ritorno in Patagonia» segna la sintesi e l’aggiornamento dei due testi sulla Patagonia scritti dai due autori qualche anno prima («The Old Patagonian Express» nel 1979 da Theroux e «In Patagonia» di Chatwin del 1982). In parte è la ripresa di motivi già presenti nei due libri, in parte è un commento che ci aiuta a capire meglio il senso della loro “letteratura di viaggio”... a questo link il seguito: https://giornatedilettura.wordpress.c...
September 20, 2018
I know Chatwin and Theroux have their own full-length books on Patagonia, but neither were available at my library when I sussed out the Argentina section. I feel this short volume - although it has some interesting content - is a bit of a runner-up/afterthought kinda book to their first travelogues. It certainly whetted my appetite for an upcoming trip to Argentina, but to be honest, reading about alfajores and listening to the soundtrack to Evita would do the same. Recommended for people who want an express read on the mythological allure of Patagonia. Not recommended for people who like to get deep into history and culture.
November 10, 2025
A little disappointing. The book contains alternating portions by both Chatwin and Paul Theroux about Patagonia and how this region of South America has influenced various authors, poets, and explorers over the years. It is quite compact, very short and contains some lovely illustrations and woodblock artwork. But I did not learn much from this book as much of it is already contained in the author's previous travelogues about the area. But I appreciated the literal book itself which was throwback to travel books of a begone era.
March 21, 2021
I have long planned to read IN PATAGONIA by Chatwin, but have yet to fulfill that goal, and after watching Herzog's moving tribute to Chatwin, I perused the library records and obtained this little gem. I have read and liked Theroux, so it was a nice little treat, apparently the result of a lecture given by the two men together. Several times I lapsed into reading in my mind the words in the voice of Herzog, which I thought was weird.
February 17, 2018
I did myself a disservice by reading this without reading the works that comes before it. As a result, I have no connection to the authors or their previous experience with Patagonia, and being only what I know of the place to this reading.
This is of interest if you love tracing literary history and influences. Otherwise, meh.
This is of interest if you love tracing literary history and influences. Otherwise, meh.
September 24, 2021
Macht durchaus Lust, das als fremd, wild, frei, gleichzeitig karg und exotisch-schön beschriebene Patagonien zu besuchen, gleichzeitig besteht etwa die Hälfte des Buches aus Zitaten irgendwelcher alten Seefahrer und Dichter, was mir durch den dauernd wechselnden Stil eher weniger Lesefreude bereitet hat.
January 20, 2022
I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book.
A fascinating account of this virtually unknown part of world told essentially by reference to literary excerpts.
The early Welsh settlers' story is told, as is an alternative history of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and perhaps how the western view of Hell was formed!
A fascinating account of this virtually unknown part of world told essentially by reference to literary excerpts.
The early Welsh settlers' story is told, as is an alternative history of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and perhaps how the western view of Hell was formed!
September 12, 2018
Libro di 75 pagine da leggere tutto d’un fiato. Un affascinante viaggio sulla storia e nascita della Patagonia. Un dialogo tra Chatwin e Theroux che riescono a trasmettere la loro passione per la Terra del Fuoco anticamente conosciuta come Terra del humo (fumo).
January 29, 2020
This is a little gem, only 60 pages long. I understand it was a dual reading/presentation that Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux gave to the Royal Geographic Society. The real gem is Chatwin's book In Patagonia, which has become a classic.
January 8, 2018
Interessante e struggente più per il ricordo che evoca (una conferenza con Bruce) che per i contenuti.
December 22, 2019
En trevlig läsning. Lite som att snabbt slänga isig en sen ensamlunch med öl och bordsgrannar som pratar vältaligt om saker snäppet över din bildning.
August 10, 2022
intricato e complesso, faticoso e accurato, a volte eccessivamente specifico, ma tutta la fatica viene ripagata dagli scenari glaciali della Patagonia
June 28, 2023
Interesting and amusing anecdotes about the discoverers and explorers of Patagonia.
January 16, 2025
Muy buen libro
July 28, 2025
Muy buen libro
November 28, 2022
Libro muy breve, al parecer procedente de una conferencia conjunta que dieron ambos autores. No aportan nada nuevo. Lo más destacable son las citas de las experiencias de otros viajeros como Darwin y Magallanes. Para mi es una lectura prescindible si has leído los libros originales sobre Patagonia de cada uno de ellos.
May 26, 2009
This is the book that introduced me to Paul Theroux. See, I was a Chatwin fan way back then, my first "real" "grown-up" author, someon whose books I had discovered and decided to like all by myself (rather than having them given to me by parents or school).
I also happened to like Australia a lot (always with the teenage angst and the urge to go far far away from home), so Chatwin was heaven-sent.
Well, he was, because he introduced me to Paul Theroux, and I LOVE Paul Theroux. Yes, more than Chatwin.
Other than that, I don't remember much about this book. As I said, it was years ago. Maybe I should reread it (like, once I've taken up Uberman sleep and have tons of time. *snorts*)
I also happened to like Australia a lot (always with the teenage angst and the urge to go far far away from home), so Chatwin was heaven-sent.
Well, he was, because he introduced me to Paul Theroux, and I LOVE Paul Theroux. Yes, more than Chatwin.
Other than that, I don't remember much about this book. As I said, it was years ago. Maybe I should reread it (like, once I've taken up Uberman sleep and have tons of time. *snorts*)
April 25, 2015
Chatwin's In Patagonia is a far, far better book. This is more of a coffee table sort of sequel, built as it around photos of Patagonia. The photos are so so, in my estimation, and the alternating comments by Chatwin and Paul Theroux are just about as ho hum. What I actually most enjoyed--in an admittedly perverse way--was Theroux's thoroughly snarky and extremely funny introduction ... a kind of appreciation and critique (mostly the latter) of his late friend, Chatwin.
July 31, 2014
I picked up this book because I'm planning a trip to Chile and I wanted to learn more about the country. I'm so glad I did. This slim volume contains literary snapshots from visitors from Charles Darwin to Butch Cassidy. We see the native Patagonians through the eyes of the first European visitors and get a feel for the magnificent, wild beauty of the area. I'm looking forward to my visit.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews