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Antwerp (novel)

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Wikipedia article




'Antwerp' ('Amberes' in Spanish) is a novella by the Chilean author Roberto Bolao. It was written in 1980 but only published in 2002, a year before the author's death. An English translation by Natasha Wimmer was published in 2010.

Considered by Bolao's literary executor Ignacio Echevarra to be the big bang of the Bolao universe, the loose prose-poem novel was written when Bolao was 27. 'Antwerp' is short and fragmentary, composed of 56 pieces (which could be seen as vignettes or sketches) with a loose narrative structure. Though there are some recurring characters and story lines, there is no central narrative. Many of the subjects dealt with become Bolao's common material for his other works of fiction - crimes and campgrounds, drifters and poetry, sex and love, corrupt cops and misfits.

Bolao had once stated that "The only novel that doesn't embarrass me is 'Antwerp'.".quoted on back cover of 'Antwerp'. New York: New Directions Publishing, 2010. In the introduction he wrote for the book in 2002 Bolao claimed:



"I wrote this book for myself, and even that I can't be sure of. For a long time these were just loose pages that I reread and maybe tinkered with, convinced I had no 'time'. But time for what? I couldn't say exactly. I wrote this book for the ghosts, who, because they're outside of time, are the only ones with time."Bolao, Roberto. "Total Anarchy: Twenty-Two Years Later", Introduction to 'Antwerp'. New York: New Directions Publishing, 2010. ix.



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