Nazi Literature in the Americas - Paperback

by Roberto Bolaño (Author), Chris Andrews (Translator)

"Genius . . . [This] is Bolaño playing with sharp, twisting knives." --Stacey D'Erasmo, The New York Times Book Review

"Imaginative, full of a love for literature, and . . . exceptionally entertaining." --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

Nazi Literature in the Americas is Roberto Bolaño's vertiginous, Borgesian journey into literature's most abysmal depths. In this mock encyclopedia of imaginary poets and novelists of the pan-American far right, we are met with a procession of literary mediocrities, sycophants, narcissists, hacks, and criminals, who share the dream of ushering in the Fourth Reich. Their portraits--rendered in sharp chiaroscuro--are every bit as brilliant, menacing, and alive as Bolaño's finest short stories. Wickedly funny and deep cutting, Nazi Literature in the Americas is also a testament to the awesome power of literature: its capacity for obsession, delusion, and violence.

Author Biography

Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) was the author of The Savage Detectives and 2666, among many other notable works. Born in Santiago, Chile, he later lived in Mexico City, Paris, and Barcelona. His accolades include the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos. He died at the age of fifty and is widely considered to be the greatest Latin American writer of his generation.

Chris Andrews has translated books of prose fiction by César Aira, Roberto Bolaño, Liliana Colanzi, and Ágota Kristóf, among others. He is also the author of How to Do Things with Forms and The Oblong Plot.