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Bolano, Roberto (Translated by Chris Andrews) : The Insufferable Gaucho

New Directions Books, New York City, NY, 2010

ISBN 0811217167

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 165 pages. The author's twelfth book to be translated into English. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Roberto Bolano's "The Insufferable Gaucho" in a felicitous English translation. Seven of Roberto Bolano's most autobiographically poignant pieces. The work of a writer who chose a life of exile and struggled with illness. "Explores themes of self-exile and illness. The two best stories concern conflicted Argentine protagonists. In the title story, Hector Pereda leaves Buenos Aires after the death of his wife and the collapse of the country's economy to make a go as a gaucho on the pampas. Inhabiting a ruined ranch, with only the languid locals and predatory rabbits as company, Hector finds a welcome, near-poetic restoration of a society where self-reliance and egalitarianism reign. In 'Alvaro Rousselot's Journey', an acclaimed Argentine novelist sets out for Paris to confront a filmmaker who has blatantly plagiarized his books though what really eats at the novelist is that the filmmaker has ignored the writer's recent works, leaving him with the sense that he had lost his best reader" (Publisher's blurb). What exactly is Roberto Bolano's achievement? "He emerged as a writer at a time when Latin America no longer believed in utopias, when paradise had become hell, and that sense of monstrousness and waking nightmares and constant flight from something horrid permeates '2666' and all his work. A writer who worked without a net, who went all out, with no brakes, and in doing so, created a new way to be a great Latin American writer" (Rodrigo Fresan). The consistently high level of Bolano's virtuosity is almost miraculous when one sees it as having been achieved during a brief and miserable personal life. It was as though he turned to literature not just to complement or complete but to change his life altogether. By the time of his untimely death in 2003 at the age of 50, Bolano was universally regarded as the greatest Spanish-language novelist of our time. "The real thing and the rarest" (Susan Sontag). An absolute "must-have" title for Roberto Bolano collectors. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few copies of the First American Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online are damaged/bumped because of shoddy packing and poor handling on the publisher's part. A scarce copy thus. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ROBERTO BOLANO TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0811217167.

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