The return / Roberto Bolaño ; translated by Chris Andrews

"These stories are selected from two volumes Originally published by Editorial Anagrama, Barcelona, Spain, Llamadas telefonicas (1997) and Putas asesinas (2001)."

Snow -- Another Russian tale -- William Burns -- Detectives -- Cell mates -- Clara -- Joanna Silvestri -- Prefiguration of Lalo Cura -- Murdering whores -- The return -- Buba -- Photos -- Meeting with Enrique Lihn.

Return contains thirteen unforgettable stories bent on returning to haunt you. Save perhaps the title story -in which a dead man follows his body through an increasingly noxious series of abuses-the stories have a subdued and sketchlike quality, from underworld confessionals like "Snow" and "Joanna Silvestri," to tender reminiscences like "Cell Mates" and the heartbreaking missed romance of "Clara." Devotees of Bolano will recognize the writer's merciless (and often humorous) fusion of high art and dark human nature in small flights like "Meeting with Enrique Lihn" and comic bloodbaths like "William Burns," though mercy plays a surprising role in several of the stories, as in the incredible "Prefiguration of Lalo Cura," in which the cast and crew of high-concept pornos face their late-life requiem. The initiated and dedicated have a welcome feast of small desolations.

Translated from the Spanish.