Project Description

The Woman in the RiverPaula Ilabaca

Chile

Paula Ilabaca, born in 1979 in Santiago, is a Chilean writer, teacher and editor. She holds a Master in Higher Education, Bachelor in Hispanic American Language and Literature, Bachelor in Education. Between 2004 and 2014 she worked in a teaching and media liaison role with Chilean Investigative Police, enabling her to learn in depth the culture of the police. She has twice received the Literary Creation Scholarship awarded by the National Book and Reading Council in Chile. She currently teaches at the University and gives literary workshops.

Lorena Palavecino© Lorena Palavecino

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The Woman in the River

In the mid-1980s, a scout patrol finds a bag of rubbish on the banks of the Mapocho river. When they open it, the most terrifying horror emerges from it. Mercedes Torrealba, detective in the Investigative Police’s homicide branch, is put in charge of the case and will have to face herself and her own shadows until she discovers the truth behind the crime. The Woman in the River (»La mujer del río«), based on true events, reads like the most addictive True Crime and immerses us in the life of a policewoman trapped in a world of men, who only hinder and entangle her already complex work.

Quotes

The Woman in the River

RIGHTS

NOVELS
The Woman in the River (“La mujer del río”)
Santiago de Chile: Sudamericana (PRH) 2024, 184 p.

Road Closed Ahead (“Camino cerrado”)
Santiago de Chile: LOM 2022, 168 p.
English sample translation available

The Rule of the Nines (“La regla de los nueve”)
Santiago de Chile: Planeta 2015, 139 p.
English sample translation available

POETRY
Peninsulas (“Penínsulas”)
Santiago de Chile: Red Internacional del Libro 2019, 80 p.

And the Blood Circulated in Her Flesh Like a River of Milk (“Y la sangre circulaba en su carne como un río de leche”)
With Paula Andrea (Ed.)
Guanajuato/Mexico: Cinosargo Ediciones 2013, 40 p.

(in) Complete (“(in) Completa”)
Santiago de Chile: MAGO Editores 2011, 90 p.

The Loose Pearl (“La perla suelta”)
Santiago de Chile: Cuarto Propio 2009, 90 p.
USA: co•im•press 2023
Translated by Daniel Borzutzky

The City Shone (“La ciudad lucía”)
Santiago de Chile: 2+2=5 Editorial 2006, 70 p.

PARTICIPATION IN ANTHOLOGIES
Anthology of Prose Poems and Prose Poetry
(“Antología de poema en prosa y prosa poética”)
With Paula Andrea (Ed.)
Santiago de Chile: Cástor y Pólux SpA 2023, 127 p.