Synopses & Reviews
As Pankaj Mishra remarked in The Nation, one of the remarkable qualities of Bolaño's short stories is that they can do the "work of a novel." The Return contains thirteen unforgettable stories bent on returning to haunt you. Wide-ranging, suggestive, and daring, a Bolaño story might concern the unexpected fate of a beautiful ex-girlfriend or a dream of meeting Enrique Lihn: his plots go anywhere and everywhere and they always surprise. Consider the title piece: a young party animal collapses in a Parisian disco and dies on the dance floor; just as his soul is departing his body, it realizes strange doings are afoot--and what follows next defies the imagination (except Bolaño's own).
Although a few have been serialized in The New Yorker and Playboy, most of the stories of The Return have never before appeared in English, and to Bolaño's many readers will be like catnip to the cats.
Review
"The late Bolano, a Chilean writer whose posthumous reputation only grows as more of his works are translated into English, practiced the short story and the novel with equal genius. This new collection of 13 stories proves to be a defining sampler of Bolano's style, thematic concerns, and favored character types." Booklist
Review
"Bolano has joined the immortals." The Washington Post
Review
"Bolano has proven [literature] can do anything." Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times
Synopsis
As Pankaj Mishra remarked in
The Nation, one of the remarkable qualities of Bolano's short stories is that they can do the 'work of a novel.'
The Return ncontains thirteen unforgettable stories bent on returning to haunt you. Wide-ranging, suggestive, and daring, a Bolao story might concern the unexpected fate of a beautiful ex-girlfriend or a dream of meeting Enrique Lihn: his plots go anywhere and everywhere and they always surprise. Consider the title piece: a young party animal collapses in a Parisian disco and dies on the dance floor; just as his soul is departing his body, it realizes strange doings are afoot'"and what follows next defies the imagination (except Bolano's own).
Although a few have been serialized in The New Yorker and Playboy, most of the stories of The Return have never before appeared in English, and to Bolano's many readers will be like catnip to the cats.
Synopsis
Although a few have been serialized inThe New Yorker and Playboy, most of the stories of The Return have never before appeared in English, and to Bolano s many readers will be like catnip to the cats. "
Synopsis
Here is the eagerly anticipated second volume of stories by Roberto Bolano. Tender or etched in acid; hazily suggestive or chillingly definitive: a trove of strangely arresting, short master works.
About the Author
Author of 2666 and many other acclaimed works, Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and later lived in Mexico, Paris, and Spain. He has been acclaimed “by far the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time” (Ilan Stavans, The Los Angeles Times),” and as “the real thing and the rarest” (Susan Sontag). Among his many prizes are the extremely prestigious Herralde de Novela Award and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos. He was widely considered to be the greatest Latin American writer of his generation. He wrote nine novels, two story collections, and five books of poetry, before dying in July 2003 at the age of 50.Chris Andrews has won the TLS Valle Inclán Prize and the PEN Translation Prize for his New Directions translations of Roberto Bolaño. A poet who lives and teaches in Australia, he has translated eight Bolaño books and three novels by César Aira for New Directions.