2666
Description
Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño’s life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his most brilliant achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strange beauty, daring experimentation, and epic scope. The book’s subject matter ranges from the heady heights of literature and love to the gritty realism of violence and death as it explores how humans make sense of senseless events. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, writers and cops, pursuing their own separate yet interrelated quests for meaning: an enigmatic Prussian novelist who disappears from the public eye after the death of his lover; a group of literary critics who bond through their shared love of the novelist’s works; an African American journalist sent to Mexico on a sports beat in the wake of his mother’s death; and a Spanish professor and widowed father whose mind is beginning to lose its grip on reality. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of Santa Teresa, a fictional Juárez on the US-Mexico border, where the serial killings of hundreds of young working class women remain unsolved.
More Details
Brick, Scott Narrator
Durán, Armando Narrator
Gardner, Grover Narrator
Lee, John Narrator
9780312429218
9781483078793
9780374531553
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Published Reviews
Booklist Reviews
At the core of Bolaño's masterwork, which wanders across continents and through decades, are murders in a mythic Mexican border town. Beginning with Lee, five readers contribute to this labyrinthine tale. Speaking in authentic accents, Lee differentiates a diverse group of European academics who try to locate reclusive German author Benno von Archimboldi. Armando Durán's Latin American dialect reflects the desperation and instability of a Chilean professor who slowly descends into madness, while before G. Valmont Thomas portrays an American who is tangentially drawn into the murder investigation. Scott Brick chillingly recites a litany of sacrilege and torture, his voice progressively hardened into disgusted monotony by the repetition of crimes. Finally, Grover Gardner recalls von Archimboldi, concluding with notes about the posthumously published novel. In a swirling maelstrom, these five voices remain firmly entrenched in listeners' minds. Also available in Playaway ($119.99). Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
Bolano composed this National Book Critics' Circle Award winner in the last years of his life; various readers. Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.