''Antwerp'' (''Amberes'' in Spanish) is a novella by the Chilean author
Roberto Bolaño. 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.
The book shows various traces of stories that are intertwined in a confusing way, using an experimental language, more of a poetic narrative than in the rest of his novels. Its title refers to the Belgian city of Antwerp, although it does not play any role in the work.
Considered by Bolaño's literary executor
Ignacio Echevarría
Ignacio Echevarría Pérez (Barcelona, 1960) is a Spanish literary critic and editor.
Echevarría was a staff member of Spanish newspaper '' El País''., until its editors removed him in 2004 for a vituperative review of ''El hijo del acordeonist ...
to be the big bang of the Bolaño universe, the loose prose-poem novel was written when Bolaño 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 Bolaño's common material for his other works of fiction - crimes and campgrounds, drifters and poetry, sex and love, corrupt cops and misfits.
Bolaño had once stated that "The only novel that doesn't embarrass me is ''Antwerp''.". In the introduction he wrote for the book in 2002 Bolaño 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."
References
External links
''Antwerp''-
New Directions Publishing's page for the book.
Roberto Bolaño's ''Antwerp''- review of the book on the
Book Soup blog, 1 April 2010.
Roberto Bolaño's ''Antwerp''- review of the book on
the Complete Review by M. A. Orthofer, 13 January 2010.
Summer Reading: Roberto Bolaño's ''Antwerp''- review of the book on
The Smart Set by Morgan Meis, 23 July 2010.
Tales by Chilean master of malaise- review of ''Monsieur Pain'', ''The Return'', ''The Insufferable Gaucho'', and ''Antwerp''
- review of the book in ''
The Daily Telegraph'', 21 October 2011.
2002 Chilean novels
Works by Roberto Bolaño
Chilean novellas
Editorial Anagrama books
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