Roberto Bolaño confirmed his place as a giant
of Latin American literature with his novels The Savage Detectives and
2666. Included in this one-of-a-kind collection is everything he was
working on just before his death in 2003.
A North American journalist in Paris is woken at 4
a.m. by a mysterious caller with urgent information. For V. S. Naipaul,
the prevalence of sodomy in Argentina is a symptom of the nation's
political ills. Daniela de Montecristo (of Nazi Literature in the
Americas and 2666) recounts the loss of her virginity. Arturo Belano -
Bolaño's alter ego - returns to Mexico City and meets a band called The
Asshole of Morelos. Belano's son Gerónimo disappears in Berlin during
the Days of Chaos in 2005. Memories of a return to the native land.
Argentine writers as gangsters. Zombie schlock as allegory . . .
Opening The Secret of Evil is like being granted
access to the Chilean master's personal files; it offers a final
opportunity to read the work of an intense, brilliant and truly original
writer.