About the Author

Roberto Bolano (1953 2003) was born in Santiago, Chile. Arrested and briefly jailed by the Pinochet regime in 1973, he spent nomadic years in El Salvador, Mexico, France, and finally Spain. The Savage Detectives received the Herralde Prize and the Romulo Gallegos Prize and won Bolano international fame.

Reviews

Savagely comic yet equally tender . . . This novel is an elegy for a generation.
*Independent*

The comic frenzy, the inventiveness of character and situation, and the mood-soaked depiction of 1970s Mexico is delightful.
*Times Literary Supplement*

A portrait of people for whom literature is bread and water, sex and death. The abiding message to be taken from Bolaño’s novel, and maybe from his fraught life, too: books matter.
*GQ*

It’s no exaggeration to call Bolaño a genius. The Savage Detectives alone should grant him immortality.
*Washington Post*

Bolaño makes you feel changed for having read him; he adjusts your angle of view on the world.
*Guardian*

Savagely comic yet equally tender . . . This novel is an elegy for a generation. * Independent *
The comic frenzy, the inventiveness of character and situation, and the mood-soaked depiction of 1970s Mexico is delightful. * Times Literary Supplement *
A portrait of people for whom literature is bread and water, sex and death. The abiding message to be taken from Bolano's novel, and maybe from his fraught life, too: books matter. * GQ *
It's no exaggeration to call Bolano a genius. The Savage Detectives alone should grant him immortality. * Washington Post *
Bolano makes you feel changed for having read him; he adjusts your angle of view on the world. * Guardian *