How long is The Remainder?

The Remainder is approximately 60,000 words. At an average reading pace, it takes about 7 hours to read.

Is The Remainder difficult to read?

The Remainder has a difficulty score of 5.7 out of 10, making it quite demanding. Key factors include vocabulary complexity (5.5/10), sentence structure (5.5/10), abstract concepts (6.0/10).

What genre is The Remainder?

The Remainder is categorized as Literary Fiction. It was published in 2019 by Alia Trabucco Zerán.

Is The Remainder worth reading?

The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán is well-received with a literary regard score of 5.2/10. Visit ReadingRate for the full difficulty analysis and reading guide.

When was The Remainder published?

The Remainder was published in 2019 by Alia Trabucco Zerán.

The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán

Name: The Remainder
Author: Alia Trabucco Zerán

Published 2019 · 60,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction

How hard is The Remainder to read?

The Remainder scores 57 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 55 out of 100: Trabucco Zerán writes in Spanish that translates into precise, psychologically acute prose. The vocabulary captures both child perspective and political inheritance, with the language of dictatorship filtering through family dynamics.
Sentence structure: 55 out of 100: Sentences are often controlled and observant, building through accumulated detail of what children notice and misunderstand. Trabucco Zerán's prose has the precision of someone tracking how historical trauma shapes consciousness.
Abstraction: 60 out of 100: The novel explores inheritance, trauma, and what it means to be born after atrocity through three siblings in post-Pinochet Chile. The 'remainder' becomes what's left over from a history they didn't live but can't escape.
Information density: 52 out of 100: Post-dictatorship Chile, family dynamics, and the textures of growing up in the shadow of political violence layer through the narrative. Trabucco Zerán builds her world through accumulated attention to what gets passed down without being explained.
Narrative indirection: 58 out of 100: The siblings' perspectives reveal different relationships to inherited history. The reader must track how each child processes what they sense but can't fully know about their parents' past.
Symbolic density: 60 out of 100: The dead bodies they must transport become symbolic of burden passed to the next generation. The remainder becomes symbolic of what can't be processed or discharged. The car journey becomes symbolic of carrying weight you didn't create.
Ironic distance: 55 out of 100: Trabucco Zerán maintains complex proximity to her young narrators while seeing what they can't articulate. The novel is tender about children processing damage while clear about how history deforms family.
Resolution withholding: 58 out of 100: The journey ends; the inheritance persists. Trabucco Zerán offers the experience without suggesting the children can ever escape what they've been given.
Structural complexity: 58 out of 100: Three sibling perspectives interweave around the central journey. The structure is moderately demanding but builds toward understanding how each processes the same family legacy.

How The Remainder is regarded

The Remainder holds a literary regard score of 52 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Alia Trabucco Zerán