Estrella distante

The narrator, a Chilean in exile in Spain, tells of Carlos Wieder, a poet and pilot he and a friend knew at university in Concepción in the early 1970s. After Pinochet's coup, Wieder becomes famous for writing poems in the sky with a plane, and, at the same time, he is linked to the disappearance and murder of women. The narrator and a detective, Abel Romero, try to track him down years later. Roberto Bolaño blends a crime story with a reflection on literature, evil and the avant-garde.

Readers who like short, dark Latin American fiction and Bolaño's work will find a good introduction. It's a compact novel that connects to The Savage Detectives.

Deep and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?