is a lecturer of literature and journalism at the University of Vina del Mar, and a columnist for Santiago's leading newspaper El Mercurio. Among his widely published novels are Quién mató a Cristian Kustermann? (Santiago: 1993), Der Schluessel liegt in Bonn (Berlin: 1995), Boleros en La Habana (Buenos Aires: 1995), and El Aleman de Atacama, forthcoming in November. He studied at the University of Chile and the University of Havana, studying Latin American and Spanish literature and social anthropology. He has worked extensively in Bonn and Berlin as a translator, a foreign correspondent, chief editor of the magazine Desarrollo y Cooperación in Bonn, and moderator for a program on Deutsche-Welle TV. He has received the Artes y Letras prize, and the Municipal Prize for Literature from the City of Valparaíso. He is supported by a grant from the Fundación Andes.