Until the age of 11 he lived in the Algorta saltpeter mining town (north of Chile), after that his family moves to Antofagasta city, where he works in numerous jobs. For three years he travel by Chile, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador and Argentina , and later started living at Pedro de Valdivia (another saltpeter mining town), where he finish high school and graduates as secondary teacher in INACAP.
He has received the Premio Consejo Nacional de Libro (Chilean National Book Award) twice, in 1994 and 1996.

Winner of the Premio Alfaguara de Novela 2010, for his novel, El Arte de la Resurrección.