By Night in Chile - by Roberto Bolaño (Paperback)

About the Book

"A novel following a priest and a literary critic through Chile's 1973 coup d'etat and consequent military dictatorship"--

Book Synopsis

"Extraordinary . . . [Bolaño's] greatest work." --James Wood, The New York Times Book Review

"A marvelous river of feeling, a brilliant meditation, an enthralling fantasy--By Night in Chile is the real thing, and the rarest: a contemporary novel destined to have a permanent place in world literature." --Susan Sontag

The book that catapulted Roberto Bolaño into international literary stardom, By Night in Chile is the final testimony of Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix--Chilean priest and member of Opus Dei, eminent literary critic and failed poet--as he is haunted by a shadowy figure from his past. In Urrutia's feverish last hours, a deluge of memories pours from him: of hobnobbing with Santiago's most unctuous literati; of undertaking a mission to save Europe's decaying cathedrals from existential threat by pigeon excrement; of retreating into Greco-Roman poetry during the darkest chapter of modern Chilean history; of tutoring Augusto Pinochet in Marxist theory, so that the General may better understand his enemies. Throughout he insists, with fracturing conviction, that he was always on the right side of history. A novel about high art and fascism, silence and complicity, and, ultimately, the weight of damnation, Roberto Bolaño's By Night in Chile is a deep-cutting satire and a work of devastating moral insight.

With a new introduction by Nicole Krauss.

Review Quotes

"Bolaño's most searing monologue."
--Daniel Zalewski, The New Yorker

"Never less than mesmerizing . . . [Bolaño] displays a remarkable knack for storytelling, his talent overshadowed only by his courageous tenacity in plumbing the unthinkable."
--Marc Cooper, Los Angeles Times

"[By Night in Chile] knocked me out . . . A lacerating little novel."
--John Powers, NPR's Fresh Air

"Dark and glittering . . . Written with unsettling art."
--Richard Eder, The New York Times

"Is there really anything in print even remotely approaching By Night in Chile? . . . [A] master class in which Bolaño manages to distill the perverse brutal phantasmagorical history of an entire continent down to 150 seductive pages . . . Latin American letters (wherever it may reside) has never had a greater, more disturbing avenging angel than Bolaño."
--Junot Díaz, The New York Times Book Review

"A wonderful and beautifully written book by a writer who has an enviable control over every beat, every change of tempo, every image . . . [A novel of] real moral and intellectual bite."
--Ben Richards, The Guardian

"Incisive . . . A fitting epitaph for all the many walking ghosts of Latin America's past and present."
--Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, The Washington Post

"Haunting . . . Bolaño's is a mesmeric storytelling gift in the vein of Borges."
--Ian Thomson, The Observer (London)

"[One of] his masterpieces."
--Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review

"[An] arresting historical novel . . . Darkly comic . . . Chilling."
--Kate Levin, The Nation

"Aria-like . . . [It spins] out, unimpeded, in extended Whitmanic exhalations."
--Wayne Koestenbaum, Bookforum

"Regarded by many as Bolaño's greatest."
--Benjamin Kunkel, London Review of Books

"Perfect."
--Wyatt Mason, Harper's Magazine

"One long, masterfully sinuous paragraph punctuated by a one-sentence finale . . . Bolaño's febrile narrative tack and occasional surreal touches bring to mind the classics of Latin American magic realism; his cerebral protagonist and nonfiction borrowings are reminiscent of Thomas Bernhard and W. G. Sebald."
--Mark Kamine, The New York Times Book Review

"A teasing mosaic of dreams, parables, memories and literary allusions . . . Deadly earnest, foreboding, and yet joyfully whimsical . . . A wonderful introduction to Bolaño's work."
--The Times (London)

About the Author

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, the Herralde de Novela 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.