On Sunday, September 23, 1973, twelve days after Augusto Pinochet’s coup, Pablo Neruda died in room 406 of the Santa María Clinic in Santiago, Chile. What happened ? What is the cause of his death? Was he murdered? Exactly fifty years to the day after the mysterious death of the Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1971, journalist Laurie Fachaux-Cygan delivers her research in her investigative story “Room 406, the Pablo Neruda Affair.”
investigative journalist, Laurie Fachaux Cygan has been working in Latin America for over fourteen years. For Le figaro, France 24, RFI, France Inter and even Arte, she traveled to Honduras, Peru, Uruguay… In Chile, where she lived, she is particularly interested in the legacies of the dictatorship (1973-1990) and the human rights violations committed during that period. His investigation into the legal dispute over women raped under Pinochet was named the best television report by the foreign press in Chile in 2015.
« Under what circumstances did Pablo Neruda die? I will detail the research carried out since 2013 by the most prestigious laboratories in the world to clarify the causes of death of the Nobel Prize winner in literature. This investigation takes us to Canada, Spain, but also France, where Pablo Neruda lived. »
This stunning and unpublished story, as close to the truth as possible and the result of ten years of work, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation into the death of Pablo Neruda and Chile in the 1970s. A powerful book about a country in search of justice that continues to search for the dictatorship’s missing people. (Presentation by Workshop editions)
Also quoted:
Trans. from Spanish (Chile) by Claude Couffon, Stéphanie Decante, Jean-Francis Reille, Waldo Rojas, Bernard Sesé and Sylvie Sesé-Léger. Edition by Stéphanie Decante.
“Fifty years after his death, Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, is still a monumental myth, a “glowing witness” of the political events of the century: the Spanish War, hope (then crisis) communist, Fight against North American imperialism in Latin America, Salvador Allende coming to power… Every time he was present, he made his voice heard, both through his poetry – the General singing especially – only through his speeches, which became famous.” (Collection QuarterGallimard)
“Verónica, the daughter of Chilean political exiles, has never experienced oppression or torture, but she feels it in her flesh. She didn’t grow up in her country, but she misses it terribly.”
She is condemned to experience recurring emotions, nostalgic for a past she did not experience, and is an exile from exile. A daughter of victims, she is also called the niece of one of the most famous executioners and traitors of Chilean oppression, Miguel Estay The Fantasy.
How can these two inheritances be reconciled?
In an essay that harmoniously combines personal history and reflection, Verónica Estay Stange asks: How does the inheritance of memory affect those who are its keepers? On a fascinating, sometimes funny, often moving quest, she tries to reclaim her past.
Verónica Estay Stange leads a personal, philosophical and literary investigation that is as intimate as it is universal.Calmann-Levy editions)
