European Modernists Codexery

Roberto Bolaño

Chilean writer known for novels The Savage Detectives and 2666.

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In 1999 he won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for The Savage Detectives, and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for 2666.[1] Roberto Bolaño Ávalos, a Chilean writer of novels, short stories, poetry, and essays, was born on 28 April 1953 and died on 15 July 2003.[1]

Key facts and history

In 1973 he left Mexico for Chile to support Salvador Allende's government, was arrested after Pinochet's coup, and spent eight days in custody.[2] On his return to Mexico in 1974, he allegedly spent time in El Salvador with poet Roque Dalton and guerrillas, though this has been doubted.[3] He moved to Europe in 1977, settled in Spain, and worked as a dishwasher and garbage collector while writing.[4] Born in Santiago in 1953 to a teacher mother and a truck-driver father (who also boxed), Bolaño never actually resided in that city.[5]

He had dyslexia, was frequently bullied at school, and grew up in a lower-middle-class household.[6] From the 1980s onward until his death, his home was Blanes, a Catalan town.[7] He started composing fiction in his early forties because he felt obligated to secure his family's financial future.[8] In 2003, after a lengthy period of worsening health, Bolaño passed away due to liver failure.[9]

What the cited sources add

The Guardian reported in 2009 that two new novels and a possible sixth section of 2666 were found among Bolaño's papers.[10] The same source noted that documents left behind should help biographers sort fact from fiction about his life.[10] The Biografías y vidas account states that Bolaño was born in Santiago on 28 April 1953, son of León Bolaño and Victoria Ávalos.[11] That account also says he joined the resistance before Pinochet's coup and was arrested.[11]

Chloe Aridjis notes that The Spirit of Science Fiction was not intended for publication and reads as an ur-text of The Savage Detectives.[12] Silva calls the novel "an epic of failure" and, in a separate source, states that literature is experienced as friendship and pursuit.[13][14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Alison Flood, "Report of Bolaño's NBCCA triumph", Guardian, 13 March 2009 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schama, Chloe. 'Dust and Literature',The New Republic, 8 May 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Miguel Huezo Mixco: Frontera D, "Roberto Bolaño en El Salvador. Supremo jardín de la guerra florida", 24 March 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rohter, "A Writer Whose Posthumous Novel Crowns an Illustrious Career (Published 2005)", The New York Times, 2005-08-09 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Goldman, Francisco. "The Great Bolaño", New York Review of Books, 19 July 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Madariaga, 2010, op. cit. «Los beatniks de México», pp. 29–44.; La Nación, "Bolaño en sus palabras", La Nación, 19 September 2009; Braithwaite, ed., 2006, op. cit. "'Si hubiera otra vida y fuera posible elegir, escogería ser mujer'", pp. 79–81. [Extracto de la entrevista de Ima Sanchís en L; Biografías y vidas, "Roberto Bolaño"; Echevarría, ed., 2004, op. cit. "Recuerdos de Los Ángeles", pp. 204–205. [Published originally between September 2002 and January 2003 in the column Entre Parén (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bolaño, Roberto (2002). "Total Anarchy: Twenty-Two Years Later", 2002 introduction to Antwerp. – Bolaño explains how he wrote this book in 1980, his last year i; Esaín, "Bolaño, en el callejón del Loro", El Pais, 2017-06-06; "Un paseo por Blanes, tras las huellas de Roberto Bolaño", Letras Libres, 6 August 2016; Ayén, "Adiós a Roberto Bolaño", La Vanguardia, 2003-07-16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Los perros románticos | Editorial Acantilado", May 2019 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tayler, "Does Roberto Bolaño's literary work live up to the hype?", The Guardian, 16 January 2009; Ehrenreich, "2666 by Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer", Los Angeles Times, 9 November 2008; "Bolaño's Voyage: "Last Evenings on Earth" by Donald Long", Barcelonareview.com, 26 March 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Tremlett, "Two new Bolaño novels found among papers left after death", The Guardian, 10 March 2009. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  11. Biografías y vidas, "Roberto Bolaño". facts only, no text reused. biografiasyvidas.com
  12. Chloe Aridjis, "The Spirit of Science Fiction by Roberto Bolaño review – a hymn to Mexico City", The Guardian, 15 February 2019.. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  13. Gunter Silva (5 September 2025). "Los detectives salvajes: Bolaño contra el Bildungsroman." Leé por Gusto. leeporgusto.pe. facts only, no text reused. leeporgusto.pe
  14. Wikipedia, "Roberto Bolaño" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gunter Silva (5 September 2025). "Los detectives salvajes: Bolaño contra el Bildungsroman." Leé por Gusto. leeporgusto.pe (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Roberto Bolaño (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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1. In what year did Roberto Bolaño die?

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3. In what year was Roberto Bolaño born?

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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