Woes of the True Policeman

A major, retrospective launch of Roberto Bolano's work - now published as a Vintage Classics author for the first time.When Oscar Amalfitano begins an affair with one of his students, he has no idea where it will lead.More than his turbulent revolutionary past, or the death of his beautiful wife, the scandalous exposure of this relationship will change him for ever. Forced to flee Barcelona with his seventeen-year-old daughter, Amalfitano finds himself in Santa Teresa, a sprawling, mythical town on the Mexico-US border, populated by mysterious characters and haunted by dark tales of murdered women.Returning to the the world and characters of 2666, Bolano's masterpiece, Woes of the True Policeman explores the the power of art, memory and desire - and marks a kaleidoscopic, lyrical and darkly humorous last act in one of the great oeuvres of world literature.TRANSLATED BY NATASHA WIMMER'Hallucinatory, manic, fearful, comic... Bolano must be read by anyone who loves the novel' Herald'We savour all he has written as every offering is a portal into the elaborate terrain of his genius' Patti Smith

The most significant Latin American literary voice of his generation. The New York Times Book Review
Bolaño's voice demands attention. The New Yorker
It’s no exaggeration to call Bolaño a genius Washington Post
Bolaño makes you feel changed for having read him; he adjusts your angle of view on the world Guardian
An event of language and devilish wit Wall Street Journal
There is a power in these pages that very few writers ever achieve Scotsman
Roberto Bolaño mastered the alchemy of turning the trivial into the sublime, the everyday into adventure. Bolaño is among the best at this diabolical skill.
When I read Bolaño, I think: everything is possible again

Roberto Bolano was born in Santiago, Chile in 1953 and died in Catalonia in 2003. He was widely regarded as the essential Latin American writer of our age. He was best known for his novels (including The Savage Detectives, which won a number of prestigious literary awards, Nocturno de Chile, translated as By Night in Chile, and 2666, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award) and his short stories, first published in English in Last Evenings on Earth.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.