SOURCE: Donoso, José, Nivea Montenegro, and Enrico Mario Santi. “A Conversation with José Donoso.” New Novel Review/Nouveau roman 1, no. 2 (April 1994): 7-15.

In the following interview, Donoso speaks about his life, the history of the “Boom” period, and aspects of postmodernism.

[Nivia Montenegro]: José Donoso's distinguished writing career began in the 1950's when he published his first short stories in his native Chile, and since then he has piled success upon success, both in Latin America and in the rest of the world with his many novels, most of which have been translated into several languages. No serious reader or scholar of modern Latin American literature can afford not to know such Donoso classics as Coronation, Hell Has No Limits, The Obscene Bird of Night, Charleston and other Stories, State of Siege, The Garden Next Door, Taratuta, among others. A frequent visitor to the United States, Mr. Donoso...