Refrains

Pedro Carmona-Alvarez

Original title: Refrenger
Publisher: Kolon, 2019
Genre: Essays
Pages: 302 pages

Refrains consists of a series of essays that explore songs and voices, listening and literature, identity and biography. Pedro Carmona-Alvarez writes about his own family, their refugee history, and how music and nostalgia expand and cement collective and individual memory. Here, the universe of children’s songs is explored through sleep figures and history, and we visit the American song tradition through singers such as Mercedes Sosa, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Bruce Springsteen. Literature’s formative qualities are discussed through encounters with Simone Weil, Alejandra Pizarnik, Anne Carson, Medusa, Roberto Bolaño, and Gabriel García Márquez.

Refrains is a book about echoes and reverberations, memory, death, violence, and history.

Awards

Klassekampen Best Books of the Year 2019

Pedro Carmona-Alvarez writes open and personal texts that reflect on what makes art meaningful. […] The combination of essay writing and coming-of-age narrative has made Refrains a successful literary hybrid, and it is more cohesive than most essay collections usually are.

Bergens Tidende, 5/6 stars

Captivating, musical texts that get stuck in your head — about songs, literature, and life.

Maria Horvei, Klassekampen

Is PCA Norway’s most generous writer? In this book, he offers us a wild repertoire of literature, pop culture, and contemporary history. Everyone is welcome.

Sandra Lillebø, Klassekampen

A fascinating work. […] But in addition to its fine literary qualities, Refrains is a book that is genuinely well-suited to public enlightenment about the conditions of refugees.

Aftenposten

Pedro Carmona-Alvarez

Pedro Carmona-Alvarez was born in La Serena, Chile, in 1972. At the age of ten, he and his family fled to Argentina, and the family later moved to Norway. He made his debut with a collection of poetry in 1997, and has since published several award-winning books. The Weather Changed, Summer Came and So On was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award in 2017.