Beryl Andrea Carter

South of Centre Beryl Andrea Carter

SOUTH OF CENTRE is the story of the enigmatic relationship between a solitary, eccentric woman and a worldly gentleman who returns home to die.




Clorinda's interest is piqued from the very moment Sr. Ortega moves in across the street. He looks like the man on the Gone with the Wind poster down at the theatre. First, she spies on him from behind her curtains and then she sneaks into his house. This is not lost on Sr. Orgega and when he finally relents and befriends her, the unlikely story behind their relationship begins to unravel, taking us for a spin through the decades before and after Chile's dictatorship.

Sr. Ortega, born a poor miner's son at the end of a long line of faded Spanish aristocracy, defies destiny at the age of 15. His single audacious impulse provokes a series of events that take him far beyond his dusty, coastal hometown, and back again.

Dressed in her 'calendar wardrobe, ' Clorinda recycles fibres from used garments to create beautiful tapestries. Obsessed as she is with Sr. Ortega, she picks through the threads of his life to weave his story into a bizarre work of art that can have only one fate.

Full of quirky humor, mythology and tragic circumstances, South of Centre is sprinkled with magic realism. With underlying questions about social justice and cultural differences that cut through decades, it brings us to a point of unexpected convergence.
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