Cowboy Graves

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One more journey to the universe of Roberto Bolaño, an essential voice of contemporary Latin American literature

Cowboy Graves is an unexpected treasure from the vault of a revolutionary talent. Roberto Bolaño’s boundless imagination and seemingly inexhaustible gift for shaping the chaos of his reality into fiction is unmistakable in these three novellas. In “Cowboy Graves,” Arturo Belano–Bolaño’s alter ego returns to Chile after the coup to fight with his comrades for socialism. “French Comedy of Horrors,” takes the reader to French Guiana on the night after an eclipse where a 17-year-old answers a pay phone and finds himself recruited into the Clandestine Surrealist Group, a secret society of artists based in the sewers of Paris. And in “Fatherland,” a young poet reckons with the fascist overthrow of his country, as the woman he is obsessed with disappears in the ensuing violence and a Third Reich fighter plane mysteriously writes her poetry in the sky overhead.

These three fiercely original tales bear the signatures of Bolaño’s extraordinary body of work, echoing the strange characters and uncanny scenes of his triumphs, while deepening our reverence for his gifts.

"These drafts reveal Bolaño (1953-2003) perfecting the literary obsessions that became his emblems." Publishers Weekly

“Each story reveals a centrifugal writer with a brilliant command of words and no fear of a plot’s getting away from him.” Kirkus

“Bolaño’s brilliant oeuvre expands with another bright starburst, this one comprising three separate yet thematically connected novellas….Bolaño’s inimitable style and searing vision will appeal to fans and new readers alike.” Booklist

Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and later lived in Mexico, Paris, and Spain. A poet and novelist, he has been acclaimed as “by far the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time” (The Los Angeles Times), and as “the real thing and the rarest” (Susan Sontag). Among his many prizes are the prestigious Herralde de Novela Award and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos. He is widely considered to be the greatest Latin American writer of his generation. His books include The Savage Detectives, 2666, By Night in Chile, Distant Star, Last Evenings on Earth, and The Romantic Dogs.