The Touch System

Alienation, belonging, and a woman’s 1,000-mile journey across the Andes to visit her dying uncle in Argentina. Ania receives a request from her father: to visit her dying uncle Agustín in Argentina. In order to fulfill her father’s wish, she will undertake a 1,000-mile journey across the Andes from her home in Chile, a journey that will also be an escape from the present and a visit to the borders of memory. Ania’s story unfolds alongside encyclopedia entries, etiquette guides, dictations from a typing class, half-faded photos, and letters between continents. An ambitious portrait emerges of alienation and belonging, and of two families and countries separated by a range of mountains. The Touch System introduces Alejandra Costamagna as one of the most powerful and subtle writers in contemporary Latin American literature.