The Obscene Bird of Night: unabridged, centennial edition

by José Donoso

eradicating with this investiture each of my previous existences, every one of them: Mudito; Don Jerónimo’s secretary; Iris’s dog; Humberto Peñaloza, the sensitive prose writer who offers us, in these simple pages,

But it’s Gina’s fault. That yellow bitch dog’s always trailing her around and I hear it screwed things up for other guys too.

Now Iris is the witch.

And my name, repeated nine thousand three hundred times in the hundred copies of my book that Don Jerónimo keeps sealed up in his library among the bibliographical curiosities no one ever consults,

I also have my name stored away with the old junk I keep collecting under my bed,