The Insufferable Gaucho

A trove of strange, arresting, short masterworks — five stories and two essays — by Roberto Bolaño, a writer who pulls bloodthirsty rabbits out of his hat.

The New York Times - Michael Greenberg

Readers trying to navigate Bolaño's gathering body of work may find themselves wondering where to turn: since his death in 2003, 12 of his books have been published in the United States. The Insufferable Gaucho would be an excellent place to start. The title story of this collection is one of Bolaño's most powerful fictions.

Author of 2666 and many other acclaimed works, Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and later lived in Mexico, Paris, and Spain. He has been acclaimed “by far the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time” (Ilan Stavans, The Los Angeles Times),” and as “the real thing and the rarest” (Susan Sontag). Among his many prizes are the extremely prestigious Herralde de Novela Award and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos. He was widely considered to be the greatest Latin American writer of his generation. He wrote nine novels, two story collections, and five books of poetry, before dying in July 2003 at the age of 50.

Chris Andrews has won the TLS Valle Inclán Prize and the PEN Translation Prize for his New Directions translations of Roberto Bolaño.