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Start giftingNazi Literature in the Americas
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Learn moreA tour de force of black humor and imaginary erudition, Nazi Literature in the Americas presents itself as a biographical dictionary of writers who espoused extreme right-wing ideologies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Comprising short biographies about imaginary writers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Columbia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the United States, Nazi Literature in the Americas includes descriptions of the writers’ works, cross-references, a bibliography, and also an “Epilogue for Monsters.” All the writers are carefully and credibly situated in real literary worlds. There are fourteen thematic sections with titles such as “Forerunners and Figures of the Anti-Enlightenment,” “Magicians, Mercenaries, and Miserable Individuals,” and “North American Poets.”
Brisk and pseudoacademic, Nazi Literature in the Americas delicately balances irony and pathos. Bolaño does not simply use his writers for target practice: in the space of a few pages he manages to sketch character portraits that are often pathetically funny, sometimes surprisingly moving, and, on occasion, authentically chilling. A remarkably inventive, funny, and disquieting sui generis novel, Nazi Literature in the Americas offers a clear view into the workings of one of the most extraordinarily fecund literary imaginations of our time.
Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and later lived in Mexico, Paris, and Spain. A poet and novelist, he has been acclaimed as "by far the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time" (The Los Angeles Times), and as "the real thing and the rarest" (Susan Sontag). Among his many prizes are the prestigious Herralde de Novela Award and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos. He is widely considered to be the greatest Latin American writer of his generation. His books include The Savage Detectives, 2666, By Night in Chile, Distant Star, Last Evenings on Earth, and The Romantic Dogs.
Jonathan Davis, who has narrated more than 150 audiobooks, has received widespread critical acclaim for his performances in a variety of genres. He's been nominated for an Audie Award in the Thriller/Suspense category, and he's read several AudioFile Earphones Award-winning titles. He has also narrated over thirty Star Wars titles. Jonathan has read such works as Snow Crash, The Stranger, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, and The Shadow of the Wind. He also performs voice-over work and is the voice of Vladimir Lem in the Editors Choice Award-winning video game "Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne." Jonathan grew up in Puerto Rico and speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew.
Chris Andrews teaches at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, where he is a member of the Writing and Society Research Center. He has translated books by Roberto Bolaño and César Aira.
Reviews
“A wicked, invented encyclopedia of imaginary fascist writers and literary tastemakers, is Bolaño playing with sharp, twisting knives. As if he were Borges’s wisecracking, sardonic son, Bolaño has meticulously created a tightly woven network of far-right litterateurs and purveyors of belles lettres for whom Hitler was beauty, truth and great lost hope. Cross-referenced, complete with bibliography and a biographical list of secondary figures, Nazi Literature is composed of a series of sketches, the compressed life stories of writers in North and South America who never existed, but all too easily could have. Goose-stepping caricatures a la ‘The Producers’ they are not; instead, they are frighteningly subtle, poignant and plausible.”
“Imaginative, full of a love for literature, and, unlikely as it may seem, exceptionally entertaining…Playing a tricky game, carefully balancing mockery and black humor against our natural sense of revulsion…Roberto Bolaño is worth discovering, worth reading—and even worth all the trouble of having to explain why it is that you are toting around a book called Nazi Literature in the Americas."
“Award-winning translator Chris Andrews gives us…proof that Bolaño is…one of the most important literary figures of twenty-five years.”
“This book, brilliantly and rambunctiously written, is a denunciation of homegrown fascism.”
“Masterfully executed…Wildly funny…[A] wickedly entertaining and evocative masterwork.”
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