The enormous posthumous success of literary novelist, poet and essayist Roberto Bolano is one of the most stunning triumphs of Latin American literature. Shortly before he died in 2003, Bolano sat down with journalist Monica Maristain to discuss his work, his life and his passions in a long interview that is as caustic as it is whimsical, surreal and always brutally frank. Bolano's personal intensity, quick humour and erudition creates a superb read.

Author Biography

Roberto Bolano (1950-2003) was a Chilean poet, novelist, and essayist. His translated work includes Amulet, By Night in Chile, Distant Star, Nazi Literature in the Americas, The Savage Detectives,2666, Last Evenings on Earth, The Romantic Dogs, and The Skating Rink. His last years were spent in Blanes, on Spain's Mediterranean coast. Marcela Valdes s a contributing editor at Publishers Weekly and the books editor for The Washington Examiner. In 2000, she co-founded Criticas, a U.S. magazine devoted to the coverage of Spanish-language books, and in 2009 she was awarded a Nieman Fellowship in Arts & Culture Journalism at Harvard University. Her writing appears regularly in The Washington Post and The Nation, among other publications. Translator Sybil Perez, a native of Chicago, is an editor at Stop Smiling magazine, a post she has held for over ten years.