Praise For Seeing Red

“Blurring the lines between fiction and memoir, Meruane’s first novel translated into English explores mortality, identity, and personal transformation…This is a penetrating autobiographical novel, and for English-language readers this work serves as a stunning introduction to a remarkable author.”

—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“An intriguing short novel…A female writer who is losing her sight probes the meaning of language, genre, and the reader’s expectations.… Meruane fashions a challenging metafiction that ventures into fresh and provocative places.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Seeing Red introduces an exciting and vital new voice into the English language, a visceral examination of the fragility and determination of a woman faced with the unknown.”

—STEPHEN SPARKS, Green Apple Books (SAN FRANCISCO, CA)

“With propulsive language and hallucinatory verve, Lina Meruane explores the relationship between identity and illness. Shifting between New York City and Santiago, between the world of sight and blindness, Seeing Red is a masterclass in taut and poetic storytelling. What Meruane manages in 150 pages is simply miraculous.”

—MARK HABER, Brazos Bookstore (HOUSTON, TX)

“An unsettling and disquieting look at a woman’s descent into blindness…With a first-person narrative chronicling her own ocular decline, Seeing Red bears witness to the inter- and intrapersonal struggles that force the narrator to make sense of the relationships around her, all while relying upon those very people for support, aid, and comfort. Meruane’s gifted prose lends the story both immediacy and persuasiveness.”

—JEREMY GARBER, Powell’s Books (PORTLAND, OR)

“In this fierce work of autofiction, Meruane’s Lucina (sometimes called Lina) resists the passive position of patient with ‘an uppercase No,’ and her anger allows a rare and powerful intimacy. Those hoping for a neat and satisfying resolution will be disappointed, but the true shape of illness is neither neat nor satisfying, and Seeing Red excels in expressing the full scale of the horror and essential uncertainty of being betrayed by one’s own body.”

—AMY BERKOWITZ, author of Tender Points