The Insufferable Gaucho-------pan macmillan
Unpredictable and daring, highly controlled and yet somehow
haywire, the five short stories included here are some of Bolaño’s
best. Whether they concern a stalwart rodent detective trying to
investigate the mysterious deaths of his fellow rats, an elderly judge
giving up his job in the city for an improbable return to the family
farm in the pampas, or a confrontation between an elusive film-maker
and the little-known Argentinian novelist whose work he’s plagiarized
for years, they are as haunting as they are enthralling.
In addition, The Insufferable Gaucho offers, for the first time in
English, two essays: ‘Literature + Illness = Illness’ and ‘The Myths of
Cthulhu’. Provocative and often scathing, these essays are alive with
Bolaño’s trademark humour, violence and utter faith in the power of the
written word.
Roberto Bolaño confirmed his place as a giant of Latin American
literature with his novels The Savage Detectives and 2666. He is
undoubtedly, as Susan Sontag said, ‘the real thing and the rarest’. The
Insufferable Gaucho was the last book he prepared for publication
before he died in 2003.
