Roberto Bolaño

Author profile

born

April 28, 1953 in Santiago, Chile

died

July 15, 2003

genre

Literature & Fiction, Poetry

influences

Jorge Luis Borges, André Breton, Nicanor Parra, Philip K. Dick, Julio ...more

About this author

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For most of his early adulthood, Bolaño was a vagabond, living at one time or another in Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, France and Spain.

Bolaño moved to Europe in 1977, and finally made his way to Spain, where he married and settled on the Mediterranean coast near Barcelona, working as a dishwasher, a campground custodian, bellhop and garbage collector — working during the day and writing at night.

He continued with poetry, before shifting to fiction in his early forties. In an interview Bolaño stated that he made this decision because he felt responsible for the future financial well-being of his family, which he knew he could never secure from the earnings of a poet. This was confirmed by Jorge Herralde, who explained that Bolaño "abandoned...more For most of his early adulthood, Bolaño was a vagabond, living at one time or another in Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, France and Spain.

Bolaño moved to Europe in 1977, and finally made his way to Spain, where he married and settled on the Mediterranean coast near Barcelona, working as a dishwasher, a campground custodian, bellhop and garbage collector — working during the day and writing at night.

He continued with poetry, before shifting to fiction in his early forties. In an interview Bolaño stated that he made this decision because he felt responsible for the future financial well-being of his family, which he knew he could never secure from the earnings of a poet. This was confirmed by Jorge Herralde, who explained that Bolaño "abandoned his parsimonious beatnik existence" because the birth of his son in 1990 made him "decide that he was responsible for his family's future and that it would be easier to earn a living by writing fiction." However, he continued to think of himself primarily as a poet, and a collection of his verse, spanning 20 years, was published in 2000 under the title The Romantic Dogs.

Regarding his native country Chile, which he visited just once after going into voluntary exile, Bolaño had conflicted feelings. He was notorious in Chile for his fierce attacks on Isabel Allende and other members of the literary establishment.

In 2003, after a long period of declining health, Bolaño died. It has been suggested that he was at one time a heroin addict and that the cause of his death was a liver illness resulting from Hepatitis C, with which he was infected as a result of sharing needles during his "mainlining" days. However, the accuracy of this has been called into question. It is true that he suffered from liver failure and was close to the top of a transplant list at the time of his death.

Bolaño was survived by his Spanish wife and their two children, whom he once called "my only motherland."

Although deep down he always felt like a poet, his reputation ultimately rests on his novels, novellas and short story collections. Although Bolaño espoused the lifestyle of a bohemian poet and literary enfant terrible for all his adult life, he only began to produce substantial works of fiction in the 1990s. He almost immediately became a highly regarded figure in Spanish and Latin American letters.

In rapid succession, he published a series of critically acclaimed works, the most important of which are the novel Los detectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives), the novella Nocturno de Chile (By Night In Chile), and, posthumously, the novel 2666. His two collections of short stories Llamadas telefónicas and Putas asesinas were awarded literary prizes.

In 2009 a number of unpublished novels were discovered among the author's papers.(less)

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Books by Roberto Bolaño

Average rating: 3.97 · 27,128 ratings · 4,775 reviews · 35 distinct works

	The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño, Natasha Wimmer (Translator) 3.94 avg rating — 8,071 ratings — published 1998 — 37 editions	My rating:
	2666 4.17 avg rating — 7,722 ratings — published 2004 — 39 editions	My rating:
	By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews (Translator) 3.86 avg rating — 1,798 ratings — published 2000 — 20 editions	My rating:
	Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews (Translator) 4.08 avg rating — 1,193 ratings — published 2006 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews (translator) 3.96 avg rating — 1,251 ratings — published 2009 — 17 editions	My rating:
	Nazi Literature in the Americas 3.86 avg rating — 1,135 ratings — published 1995 — 18 editions	My rating:
	Amulet by Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews (Translator) 3.78 avg rating — 1,121 ratings — published 2005 — 12 editions	My rating:
	The Skating Rink by Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews (Translator) 3.77 avg rating — 708 ratings — published 1993 — 14 editions	My rating:
	The Romantic Dogs by Roberto Bolaño, Laura Healy (Translator) 3.90 avg rating — 484 ratings — published 2005 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Antwerp by Roberto Bolaño, Natasha Wimmer (Translator) 3.59 avg rating — 461 ratings — published 2003 — 8 editions	My rating:

More books by Roberto Bolaño…

Quotes by Roberto Bolaño

“Books are finite, sexual encounters are finite, but the desire to read and to fuck is infinite; it surpasses our own deaths, our fears, our hopes for peace.”
― Roberto Bolaño

tags: death , fear , hope , peace , reading , sex

155 people liked it

“Reading is like thinking, like praying, like talking to a friend, like expressing your ideas, like listening to other people's ideas, like listening to music, like looking at the view, like taking a walk on the beach.”
― Roberto Bolaño, 2666

tags: books , reading

93 people liked it

“So everything lets us down, including curiosity and honesty and what we love best. Yes, said the voice, but cheer up, it's fun in the end.”
― Roberto Bolaño, 2666

tags: optimism

83 people liked it

See all Roberto Bolaño's quotes »

Polls

What should we read for Book 20?

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino

4 votes 50.0%

John Carter of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs or other ERB

3 votes 37.5%

The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolaño

1 vote 12.5%

The City & the City - China Miéville

0 votes 0.0%

The Princess Bride - William Goldman

0 votes 0.0%

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

0 votes 0.0%

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare - G.K. Chesterton

0 votes 0.0%

8 total votes

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Roberto Bolaño

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Roberto Bolaño

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