Roberto Bolaño

Roberto Bolaño Ávalos (Spanish: [roˈβeɾto βoˈlaɲo ˈaβalos] ; 28 April 1953 – 15 July 2003) was a distinguished Chilean literary figure, recognized for his contributions as a novelist, short-story writer, poet, and essayist. In 1999, Bolaño received the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel The Savage Detectives. Posthumously, in 2008, he was honored with the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666, a work Marcela Valdes, a board member, lauded as "so rich and dazzling that it will surely draw readers and scholars for ages."

Roberto Bolaño Ávalos (Spanish: [roˈβeɾtoβoˈlaɲoˈaβalos] ; 28 April 1953 – 15 July 2003) was a Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. In 1999, Bolaño won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel The Savage Detectives, and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666, which was described by board member Marcela Valdes as a "work so rich and dazzling that it will surely draw readers and scholars for ages".

Bolaño's literary output garners substantial acclaim from both fellow authors and contemporary literary critics. The New York Times characterized him as "the most significant Latin American literary voice of his generation," and his oeuvre is frequently juxtaposed with that of Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar. His publications have been rendered into multiple languages, encompassing English, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Dutch, and Greek.

Biography

Early Life in Chile

Born in Santiago in 1953, Bolaño was the son of a truck driver, who also pursued boxing, and a teacher. Although his birth occurred in Santiago, he did not reside there. His formative years, along with his sister's, were spent across southern and coastal Chile, including primary education in Viña del Mar, followed by relocations to Quilpué and Cauquenes. Bolaño characterized himself as slender, myopic, and intellectually inclined. He experienced dyslexia and frequent bullying during his schooling, which fostered a sense of alienation. Hailing from a lower-middle-class background, his family, despite his mother's interest in popular literature, was not primarily intellectual. He had one younger sister. At the age of ten, he undertook his initial employment, selling bus tickets on the Quilpué-Valparaiso route. A significant portion of his childhood was spent in Los Ángeles, within Chile's Bío Bío region.

Adolescence in Mexico

In 1968, Bolaño relocated with his family to Mexico City, where he subsequently discontinued his formal education, engaged in journalism, and became involved in left-wing political activism.

Temporary Return to Chile

A pivotal event in Bolaño's biography, recurring in various iterations across his literary corpus, transpired in 1973. He departed Mexico for Chile with the stated intention of contributing to "the revolution" through support for Salvador Allende's democratic socialist administration. Following Augusto Pinochet's right-wing military coup against Allende, Bolaño was apprehended under suspicion of "terrorism" and detained for eight days. His release was facilitated by two former classmates who had become prison guards. Bolaño chronicles this ordeal in his story "Dance Card," where he recounts not being subjected to torture as anticipated, but rather hearing "them torturing others; I couldn't sleep and there was nothing to read except a magazine in English that someone had left behind. The only interesting article in it was about a house that had once belonged to Dylan Thomas... I got out of that hole thanks to a pair of detectives who had been at high school with me." The same incident is also narrated from the perspective of Bolaño's former classmates in the story "Detectives." However, since 2009, associates from Bolaño's Mexican period have expressed skepticism regarding his actual presence in Chile during 1973.

Bolaño harbored ambivalent sentiments toward his homeland. He gained notoriety in Chile for his vehement critiques of Isabel Allende and other figures within the national literary establishment. Ariel Dorfman, a Chilean-Argentinian novelist and playwright, observed, "He didn't fit into Chile, and the rejection that he experienced left him free to say whatever he wanted, which can be a good thing for a writer."

Re-establishment in Mexico

During his overland journey from Chile back to Mexico in 1974, Bolaño purportedly spent a period in El Salvador, associating with the poet Roque Dalton and members of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front; however, the authenticity of this particular account remains contested.

Commencing in the 1960s, Bolaño, who had been an atheist since his youth, embraced Trotskyism and, in 1975, co-founded Infrarrealismo (Infrarealism), a relatively minor poetic movement. He subsequently offered an affectionate parody of certain facets of this movement within his novel The Savage Detectives.

Upon his re-establishment in Mexico, Bolaño adopted the persona of a literary enfant terrible and bohemian poet. His editor, Jorge Herralde, characterized him as "a professional provocateur feared at all the publishing houses even though he was a nobody, bursting into literary presentations and readings."

Relocation to Spain

In 1977, Bolaño relocated to Europe, eventually settling in Spain, where he married and established residence on the Mediterranean coast, specifically the Costa Brava, near Barcelona. He undertook various manual labor roles, including dishwasher, campground custodian, bellhop, and garbage collector, dedicating his leisure hours to writing. From the 1980s until his demise, he resided in Blanes, a small Catalan coastal town within the province of Girona.

Bolaño initially pursued poetry, transitioning to fiction in his early forties. In an interview, Bolaño stated that his pivot to fiction was motivated by a sense of responsibility for his family's financial security, a goal he believed unattainable through poetic endeavors alone. This perspective was corroborated by Jorge Herralde, who noted that Bolaño "abandoned his parsimonious beatnik existence" following his son's birth in 1990, which prompted him to "decide that he was responsible for his family's future and that it would be easier to earn a living by writing fiction." Nevertheless, he consistently regarded himself primarily as a poet; a compilation of his poetry, encompassing two decades of work, was released in 2000 under the title Los perros románticos (The Romantic Dogs).

Deteriorating Health and Demise

Bolaño's demise in 2003 followed an extended period of deteriorating health. He suffered from liver failure and was on a liver transplant waiting list during the composition of 2666, occupying the third position on the list at the time of his passing.

Approximately six weeks prior to his death, Bolaño was lauded by his Latin American novelist peers as the preeminent literary figure of his generation during an international conference he attended in Seville. His intimate circle included novelists Rodrigo Fresán and Enrique Vila-Matas. Fresán's eulogy notably asserted that "Roberto emerged as a writer at a time when Latin America no longer believed in utopias, when paradise had become hell, and that sense of monstrousness and waking nightmares and constant flight from something horrid permeates 2666 and all his work." Fresán further remarked, "His books are political," yet in a manner "that is more personal than militant or demagogic, that is closer to the mystique of the beatniks than the Boom." According to Fresán, Bolaño "was one of a kind, a writer who worked without a net, who went all out, with no brakes, and in doing so, created a new way to be a great Latin American writer." Larry Rohter, writing for the New York Times, observed, "Bolaño joked about the 'posthumous', saying the word 'sounds like the name of a Roman gladiator, one who is undefeated,' and he would no doubt be amused to see how his stock has risen now that he is dead." His death, attributed to liver failure, occurred at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona on July 15, 2003.

Bolaño was survived by his Spanish wife, Carolina López, and their two children, whom he affectionately referred to as "my only motherland." In his final interview, featured in the Mexican edition of Playboy magazine, Bolaño identified as a Latin American, further stating that "my only country is my two children and wife and perhaps, though in second place, some moments, streets, faces or books that are in me, and which one day I will forget..."

Literary Works

While recognized for his novels, novellas, and short stories, Bolaño was also a prolific poet, composing both free verse and prose poems. Bolaño considered himself predominantly a poet, a sentiment echoed by a character in The Savage Detectives: "Poetry is more than enough for me, although sooner or later I'm bound to commit the vulgarity of writing stories."

He rapidly published a sequence of critically acclaimed works, notably including the novel Los detectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives), the novella Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile), and the posthumously released novel 2666. His two short story collections, Llamadas telefónicas and Putas asesinas, garnered literary awards. In 2009, several previously unpublished novels were discovered within the author's archives.

Novels and Novellas

The Skating Rink

The Skating Rink (La pista de hielo in Spanish) is situated in the seaside town of Z, on the Costa Brava, north of Barcelona, and is narrated by three male characters, centering on a talented figure skater named Nuria Martí. When Nuria is unexpectedly removed from the Olympic team, an arrogant yet infatuated civil servant clandestinely constructs a skating rink within a dilapidated local mansion, utilizing public funds. However, Nuria's romantic entanglements and the ensuing jealousy transform the skating rink into a locus of crime.

Nazi Literature in the Americas

Nazi Literature in the Americas (La literatura Nazi en América in Spanish) is a wholly fictitious and ironic encyclopedic work profiling Latin American and American fascist writers and critics, whose profound self-mythification obscures their mediocrity and limited readership. Although such literary self-deception is a recurring theme in Bolaño's oeuvre, these particular characters are distinguished by the deliberate depravity of their political ideologies. Published in 1996, the narrative spans from the late 19th century to 2029. The final biographical entry was subsequently developed into the novel Distant Star.

Distant Star

Distant Star (Estrella distante in Spanish) is a novella deeply embedded within the political landscape of the Pinochet regime, exploring themes of murder, photography, and aerial poetry inscribed in the sky by military aircraft smoke. This somber satirical narrative examines Chilean political history with a blend of morbidity and occasional humor.

The Savage Detectives

The Savage Detectives (Los detectives salvajes in Spanish) has been compared by Jorge Edwards to Julio Cortázar's Rayuela and José Lezama Lima's Paradiso.

In a review published in El País, Spanish critic and former literary editor Ignacio Echevarría proclaimed it "the novel Borges would have written." Bolaño frequently articulated his admiration for the works of Borges and Cortázar, once concluding a survey of contemporary Argentinian literature with the assertion that "one should read Borges more." Echeverría further stated, "Bolaño's genius lies not only in the exceptional quality of his prose but also in his divergence from the conventional archetype of the Latin American writer." He elaborated, "His writing transcends magical realism, baroque aesthetics, or localist confines, instead offering an imaginary, extraterritorial reflection of Latin America, conceived more as a state of mind than a geographical location."

The core section of The Savage Detectives comprises an extensive, fragmented collection of accounts detailing the journeys and exploits of Arturo Belano—a character whose name resonates with Bolaño's own and who recurs in other narratives—and Ulises Lima, spanning the period from 1976 to 1996. Narrated by 52 distinct characters, these travels and adventures lead them from Mexico City through Israel, Paris, Barcelona, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vienna, culminating in Liberia amidst its civil war in the mid-1990s. These reports are framed at the novel's outset and conclusion by the narrative of their search for Cesárea Tinajero, the progenitor of "real visceralismo," a Mexican avant-garde literary movement of the 1920s. This framing narrative, set in late 1975 and early 1976, is recounted by the aspiring 17-year-old poet García Madero, who initially describes the literary and social milieu surrounding the nascent "visceral realists" and subsequently concludes the novel with his depiction of their flight from Mexico City to the state of Sonora. Bolaño characterized The Savage Detectives as "a love letter to my generation."

In his essay “Los detectives salvajes: Bolaño contra el Bildungsroman,” Peruvian author Gunter Silva Passuni analyzes The Savage Detectives as an inverted Bildungsroman. Silva posits that the novel deliberately undermines the conventional coming-of-age narrative, depicting its protagonists' descent into fragmentation and loss rather than guiding them toward maturity and societal integration. From Silva's perspective, the quest for the elusive poet Cesárea Tinajero operates "less as a plot than as a void," thereby organizing the narrative around an absence.

Silva contends that the enduring legacy is not literary achievement but the fraternal bond among "real visceralists." He posits that literature is perceived as a journey of friendship and exploration, rather than a finalized artistic product. Tinajero, therefore, embodies an elusive, fundamental form of literature—"something lost, impossible to fix or canonize." Accordingly, Silva characterizes the novel as "an epic of failure," asserting that the genuine essence of literature lies in the quest for books and the communities forged through this pursuit, rather than in completed works.

Amulet

Amulet (titled Amuleto in Spanish) centers on the Uruguayan poet Auxilio Lacouture, who previously appeared as a minor character in The Savage Detectives, where she was depicted as being confined to a bathroom at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City for two weeks during an army raid on the institution. The story is set against the backdrop of the political and intellectual turmoil of 1968, a year characterized by extensive student demonstrations across Mexican universities, which tragically culminated in the army's massacre of hundreds of students in Tlatelolco Square, Mexico City, on October 2. Within this concise novel, Auxilio encounters numerous Latin American artists and writers, including Arturo Belano, a character often considered Bolaño's alter ego. Distinct from The Savage Detectives, Amulet maintains Auxilio's first-person perspective, yet it still incorporates the characteristic dynamic interplay of diverse personalities for which Bolaño is recognized.

In a review of Amulet, the scholar Ángel Díaz Miranda identified a thematic continuity between Bolaño's novel and Elena Poniatowska’s The Night of Tlatelolco (La noche de Tlatelolco in Spanish), a foundational text documenting the 1968 student protests.

By Night in Chile

By Night in Chile (titled Nocturno de Chile in Spanish) presents a narrative structured as the unedited, rambling deathbed confessions of Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean Opus Dei priest and unsuccessful poet. During a pivotal phase of his ecclesiastical career, Father Urrutia is contacted by two Opus Dei representatives who inform him of his selection to travel to Europe to research the conservation of ancient churches—a role ideally suited for a clergyman with artistic inclinations.

Upon his arrival, Urrutia learns that the primary threat to European cathedrals is pigeon droppings, and that his European colleagues have developed an ingenious solution: they have become falconers. He observes, in various towns, how the priests' hawks brutally eliminate flocks of innocuous birds. Disturbingly, the Jesuit's silence regarding this violent method of architectural preservation indicates to his superiors his willingness to act as a passive collaborator in the oppressive and brutal tactics of the Pinochet regime. This episode marks the commencement of Bolaño's critique of "l'homme intellectuel" ("intellectual man"), who withdraws into art, employing aestheticism as a facade and defense while the surrounding world remains disturbingly static, perpetually unjust, and cruel. The novel reflects Bolaño's perspective upon returning to Chile and observing a society where power structures and human rights abuses were consolidated. It is noteworthy that the book was initially titled Tormenta de Mierda (Shit Storm in English) but was subsequently renamed at the persuasion of Jorge Herralde and Juan Villoro.

Antwerp

Antwerp is regarded by Ignacio Echevarría, Bolaño's literary executor, as the foundational work of the Bolaño literary cosmos. This loosely structured prose-poem novel was composed in 1980 when Bolaño was 27 years old; it remained unpublished until 2002, appearing in Spanish as Amberes, a year prior to the author's demise. The text features a diffuse narrative, organized less by a conventional plot arc and more by recurring motifs, characters, and anecdotes. Many of these elements subsequently became recurrent themes in Bolaño's oeuvre, including crimes and campgrounds, itinerants and poetry, sexuality and affection, and corrupt law enforcement officers and social outcasts. The rear cover of the initial New Directions edition of the book includes a quotation from Bolaño concerning Antwerp: "The only novel that doesn't embarrass me is Antwerp."

2666

2666 was published in 2004, reportedly as a posthumously submitted first draft. This extensive work consumed the final five years of his life, a period marked by a severe decline in his health due to liver complications. Spanning over 1,100 pages (898 in its English translation), the novel is structured into five distinct parts. Centering on the largely unresolved and continuing serial murders in the fictional city of Santa Teresa (modeled after Ciudad Juárez), 2666 portrays the horrors of the 20th century through a diverse ensemble of characters, such as law enforcement officers, journalists, criminals, and four academics seeking the reclusive German author Benno von Archimboldi, a figure who bears a resemblance to Bolaño himself. In 2008, the novel received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, accepted by its translator, Natasha Wimmer. A March 2009 report in The Guardian indicated that researchers examining Bolaño's literary estate discovered papers suggesting the existence of an additional sixth part of 2666.

The Third Reich

The Third Reich (originally El Tercer Reich) was penned in 1989 but remained undiscovered among Bolaño's manuscripts until after his death. Its Spanish publication occurred in 2010, followed by an English edition in 2011. The narrative centers on Udo Berger, a German wargame champion, who returns with his girlfriend, Ingeborg, to a small Costa Brava town where he spent his childhood summers. There, he engages in a game of Rise and Decline of the Third Reich with an unknown individual.

Woes of the True Policeman

Woes of the True Policeman (Spanish: Los sinsabores del verdadero policía) debuted in Spanish in 2011 and in English in 2012. This novel is characterized by its narrative threads and characters that either complement or offer alternative perspectives to Bolaño's 2666. Initiated in the 1980s, the work remained unfinished at the time of his passing.

The Spirit of Science Fiction

The Spirit of Science Fiction (Spanish: El espíritu de la ciencia-ficción) was completed by Bolaño around 1984 and subsequently published posthumously in Spanish in 2016 and in English in 2019. Many scholars consider this novel a foundational text for The Savage Detectives, noting its "precursory character sketches and situations" and its focus on the lives of young poets and writers residing in Mexico City.

Short Story Collections

Last Evenings on Earth

Last Evenings on Earth (derived from the Spanish collections Llamadas telefónicas and Putas Asesinas) comprises fourteen short stories, predominantly narrated in the first person by various distinct voices. Several of these narratives feature an authorial persona, "B.", a characteristic authorial device serving as a surrogate for Bolaño himself.

The Return

The Return, a compilation of twelve short stories, was initially published in English in 2010, translated by Chris Andrews. This collection incorporates stories from the Spanish-language volumes Llamadas Telefonicas and Putas Asesinas that were not featured in Last Evenings on Earth.

The Insufferable Gaucho

The Insufferable Gaucho (Spanish: El gaucho insufrible) compiles a diverse array of works, featuring five short stories and two essays. The titular story draws inspiration from Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges's "The South," a work explicitly referenced within Bolaño's oeuvre.

The Secret of Evil

The Secret of Evil (Spanish: El secreto del mal) is a compilation of short stories, recollections, and essays. The Spanish edition, released in 2007, includes 21 pieces, 19 of which are present in the English edition, published in 2010. Notably, several narratives within this collection feature characters previously encountered in Bolaño's earlier works, such as his alter ego Arturo Belano and figures initially introduced in Nazi Literature in the Americas.

Poems

The Romantic Dogs

The Romantic Dogs (Spanish: Los perros románticos), published in 2006, represents Bolaño's inaugural poetry collection translated into English, appearing in a 2008 bilingual edition from New Directions, translated by Laura Healy. Bolaño himself asserted that he primarily identified as a poet, only later turning to fiction writing largely to provide for his children.

The Unknown University

A deluxe edition of Bolaño's complete poetic works, titled The Unknown University, was translated from Spanish by Laura Healy and published by New Directions in 2013. This collection received a shortlisting for the 2014 Best Translated Book Award.

Themes

During the last ten years of his life, Bolaño generated a substantial literary output, encompassing numerous short stories and novels. His fictional narratives frequently feature characters who are novelists or poets, ranging from aspiring talents to celebrated figures. Writers are portrayed as ubiquitous within Bolaño's universe, assuming diverse roles such as heroes, antagonists, investigators, and iconoclasts.

Additional prominent themes explored in his oeuvre encompass quests, "the myth of poetry," the "interrelationship of poetry and crime," the pervasive violence inherent in contemporary Latin American existence, and the fundamental human experiences of youth, affection, and mortality.

Within his short story, Dentist, Bolaño seemingly articulates his foundational aesthetic principles. The narrative involves a narrator visiting an old friend, a dentist, who then introduces him to an impoverished Indigenous boy revealed to be a literary prodigy. During an extended evening of intoxicated discourse, the dentist expounds upon what he perceives as the fundamental nature of art:

"That's what art is," he said, "the story of a life in all its particularity. It's the only thing that really is particular and personal. It's the expression and, at the same time, the fabric of the particular." "And what do you mean by the fabric of the particular?" I asked, supposing he would answer: "Art." I was also thinking, indulgently, that we were pretty drunk already and that it was time to go home. But my friend said: "What I mean is the secret story...The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every damn thing matters! It's just that we don't realize. We tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, we don't even realize that's a lie."

Consistent with much of Bolaño's literary output, this conceptualization of fiction is simultaneously elusive and profoundly evocative. Jonathan Lethem observed, "Reading Roberto Bolaño is like hearing the secret story, being shown the fabric of the particular, watching the tracks of art and life merge at the horizon and linger there like a dream from which we awake inspired to look more attentively at the world."

In his discourse on the essence of literature, including his own creations, Bolaño underscored its intrinsic political dimensions. He articulated: "All literature, in a certain sense, is political. I mean, first, it's a reflection on politics, and second, it's also a political program. The former alludes to reality—to the nightmare or benevolent dream that we call reality—which ends, in both cases, with death and the obliteration not only of literature, but of time. The latter refers to the small bits and pieces that survive, that persist; and to reason."

Bolaño's literary output consistently demonstrates a preoccupation with the fundamental nature and objectives of literature, as well as its intricate relationship with life. A recent critical evaluation of his works explores his conceptualization of literary culture as a "whore":

"Among the many acid pleasures of the work of Roberto Bolaño, who died at 50 in 2003, is his idea that culture, in particular literary culture, is a whore. In the face of political repression, upheaval, and danger, writers continue to swoon over the written word, and this, for Bolaño, is the source both of nobility and of pitch-black humor. In his novel 'The Savage Detectives,' two avid young Latino poets never lose faith in their rarefied art no matter the vicissitudes of life, age, and politics. If they are sometimes ridiculous, they are always heroic. But what can it mean, he asks us and himself, in his dark, extraordinary, stinging novella 'By Night in Chile,' that the intellectual elite can write poetry, paint, and discuss the finer points of avant-garde theater as the junta tortures people in basements? The word has no national loyalty, no fundamental political bent; it's a genie that can be summoned by any would-be master. Part of Bolaño's genius is to ask, via ironies so sharp you can cut your hands on his pages, if we perhaps find a too-easy comfort in art, if we use it as anesthetic, excuse, and hide-out in a world that is very busy doing very real things to very real human beings. Is it courageous to read Plato during a military coup or is it something else?"

Stacey D'Erasmo, writing for The New York Times Book Review, noted on February 24, 2008.

Nazism and fascism constitute a recurrent thematic element throughout Bolaño's literary output, particularly prominent in Nazi Literature in the Americas and The Third Reich. Critic Jacob Silverman characterized Bolaño's engagement with Nazism as "a kind of shadow text that runs throughout his work, showing how the narcissism of power has much in common with the narcissism of authorship." This perspective suggests that Bolaño's portrayal of ambitious young authors in exile serves as a counterpoint to the thwarted aspirations of exiled Nazis, highlighting "the malignance of ambition as well as the morally treacherous choice that some of Bolaño’s generation made, throwing their lot in with Augusto Pinochet."

Translations

Upon his death, Bolaño held 37 publishing contracts spanning ten countries. This number expanded posthumously to encompass additional nations, including the United States, ultimately reaching 50 contracts and 49 translations across twelve countries, all preceding the publication of 2666. Barbara Epler of New Directions, Bolaño's initial American publisher, acquired the rights to By Night in Chile, Distant Star, and Last Evenings on Earth after reviewing a galley proof of the first, with all three translated by Chris Andrews. By Night in Chile was released in 2003 and garnered significant acclaim from Susan Sontag. Concurrently, Bolaño's writings started appearing in various magazines, thereby enhancing his recognition among English-speaking audiences. The New Yorker notably featured a Bolaño short story, Gómez Palacio, in its August 8, 2005, issue.

By 2006, Carmen Balcells managed Bolaño's literary rights and opted to have his two most renowned works, The Savage Detectives and 2666, reissued by a more prominent publishing house. Farrar, Straus and Giroux subsequently published both, with The Savage Detectives appearing in 2007 and 2666 in 2008, each translated by Natasha Wimmer. Concurrently, New Directions undertook the publication of Bolaño's remaining known works, totaling 13 books. These included two poetry collections translated by Laura Healy, Antwerp and Between Parentheses translated by Natasha Wimmer, and six novels alongside three short story collections translated by Chris Andrews.

The subsequent discovery of additional Bolaño works has resulted in several posthumous publications. These include the novel The Third Reich (originally El Tercer Reich in Spanish), published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2011 and translated by Wimmer, and The Secret of Evil (originally El Secreto del Mal), a collection of short stories released by New Directions in 2012, translated by Wimmer and Andrews. A translation of the novel Woes of the True Policeman (titled Los sinsabores del verdadero policía in Spanish), published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and translated by Wimmer, became available on November 13, 2012. Furthermore, a collection of three novellas, Cowboy Graves (originally Sepulcros de vaqueros in Spanish), was released by Penguin Press, translated by Wimmer, on February 16, 2021.

In 2024, Farrar, Straus and Giroux acquired the North American print and e-book rights for Bolaño's works. The publisher subsequently announced intentions to reprint a substantial portion of Bolaño's English catalog under the Picador imprint, commencing in June 2024 with By Night in Chile, The Return, and Antwerp.

Bibliography

References

In English

In English

• Corral, Will H. "Roberto Bolaño: Portrait of the Writer as Noble Savage." World Literature Today 81, no. 1 (November–December 2006): 51–54.
• Bolaño, Roberto, Sybil Perez, and Marcela Valdes. Roberto Bolaño: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Publishing, 2009.
• Miles, Valerie. "A Journey Forward to the Origin." In Archivo Bolaño. 1977–2003. Barcelona: CCCB, 2013. pp. 136–141.
• López-Calvo, Ignacio, ed. Roberto Bolaño, a Less Distant Star: Critical Essays. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishing, 2015.
• López-Calvo, Ignacio, ed. Critical Insights: Roberto Bolaño. Hackensack, NJ: Salem Press, 2015.
• Perisic, Alexandra. ""How to Get Away with Murder": Multinational Corporations and Atlantic Crimes." In Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2019. (Discusses the works of Roberto Bolaño).

In Spanish

• Manzoni, Celina. Roberto Bolaño, la literatura como tauromaquia. Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 2002.
• Patricia Espinosa H. Territorios en fuga: estudios criticos sobre la obra de Roberto Bolaño. Providencia (Santiago): Ed. Frasis, 2003.
• Jorge Herralde. Para Roberto Bolaño. Colombia: Villegas Editores, 2005.
• Celina Manzoni, Dunia Gras, Roberto Brodsky. Jornadas homenaje Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003): simposio internacional. Barcelona: ICCI Casa Amèrica a Catalunya, 2005.
• Fernando Moreno. Roberto Bolaño: una literatura infinita. Poitiers: Université de Poitiers / CNRS, 2005.
• Edmundo Paz Soldán, Gustavo Faverón Patriau (coord.). Bolaño salvaje. Canet de Mar (Barcelona): Ed. Candaya, 2008. (Includes a DVD featuring the documentary, Bolaño cercano, by Erik Haasnoot.)
• Will H. Corral. Bolaño traducido: nueva literatura mundial. Madrid: Ediciones Escalera, 2011.
• Myrna Solotorevsky. 'El espesor escritural en novelas de Roberto Bolaño'. Rockville, Maryland: Ediciones Hispamérica, 2012. ISBN 978-0-935318-35-7.
• Valerie Miles. 'Roberto Bolaño en Buenos Aires'. La Nación, 13 December 2013.
• Ursula Hennigfeld (ed.). Roberto Bolaño. Violencia, escritura, vida. Madrid: Vervuert, 2015.

In French

• Karim Benmiloud, Raphaël Estève (coord.). Les astres noirs de Roberto Bolaño. Bordeaux: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2007.

Interviews with Bolaño

• Roberto Bolaño interviewed for the cultural talk show "La Belleza de Pensar" hosted by Cristian Warken

• "The Caracas Speech", Roberto Bolaño accepting the Rómulo Gallegos Prize, translated in Triple Canopy

Sites about Bolaño

• Roberto Bolaño in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• (in Spanish) "Bolaño Etica del desorden" Archived 7 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine (PDF) in Revista Nómadas