Roberto Bolaño - Nazi Literature in the Americas

The Times“A solidly imagined world...” But the result is less a novel than an elaborate jeu d’esprit... Bolano’s difficulty lies in keeping it going without any overall driving narrative. It helps that the writers are ­categorised... but even so the temptation is to dip in and out...

The Scotsman“Parts of it are very funny indeed...” It is a parade of delusional, mediocre, vicious and pitiable poetasters, a scabrous parlour game that reveals much about literature, power and complicity...

Financial Times“The best and weirdest kind of literary game...” This artful alternate history of modern literature, stitched together from loose ends, half-told stories and deft episodes of pastiche, is a strangely profound place to get lost...

The Telegraph“If you like magic realism, you will enjoy Bolaño...” One’s credulity may be strained by some of the more outlandish details, but then again the Nazis did go in for nudism, and much more improbable lives have been recorded in the obituaries column of this newspaper...

The New York Times“Goose-stepping caricatures à la “The Producers” they are not...” “Nazi Literature in the Americas,” a wicked, invented encyclopedia of imaginary fascist writers and literary tastemakers, is Bolaño playing with sharp, twisting knives...

Publishers Weekly“This slim, fake encyclopedia is not wholly tongue-in-cheek...” The poets described herein, though invented, seem—even at their most absurd—plausible, which is the secret to this sly book’s devastating effect...The wild inventiveness of Bolaño’s evocations places them squarely in the realm of Borges...

The Independent“Not yet reviewed”

Guardian“Not yet reviewed”

Economist“Not yet reviewed”

The New Yorker“Not yet reviewed”