Photo story

And yet there are certain features of the photo (something about the arrangement of the objects, the petrified, musical rhododendron, two of its leaves invading the space of the ficus like clouds within a cloud, the grass growing in the planter, which looks more like fire than grass, the everlasting leaning whimsically to the left, the glasses in the center of the table, well away from the edges, except for Kristeva’s, as if the other members of the group were worried they might fall) that suggest a more complex and subtle web of relations among these men and women.

- from "Labyrinth", a story by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Chris Andrews, in The New Yorker. The story was accompanied by an interview with Barbara Epler, New Directions publisher, in the magazine's blog.

See also: interview with Natasha Wimmer about her translation of the Bolaño novel The Third Reich.

Indelible memory

Then there was poor Aunt Giselle, my mother's youngest sister, who came with us on the second-to-last summer we spent at the Del Mar. More than anything else, Aunt Giselle loved bull-fighting, and she couldn't get enough of the fights. Indelible memory: my brother driving my father's car with complete impunity and me sitting next to him, smoking, without a word from anyone, and Aunt Giselle in the backseat staring in ecstasy at the foam-splashed cliffs and the deep green of the sea beneath us with a smile of satisfaction on her pale lips and three posters, three treasures, on her lap, proof that she, my brother, and I had rubbed shoulders with the bullfighting greats at the Plaza de Toros in Barcelona. I know my parents disapproved of many of the activities that Aunt Giselle pursued with such passion, just as they weren't pleased by the freedoms she permitted us, excessive for children, as they saw it, although by then I was nearly fourteen. At the same time, I've always suspected that it was we who looked after Aunt Giselle, a task my mother assigned us without anyone realizing, surreptitiously and with great trepidation. In any case, Aunt Giselle was with us for only one summer, the summer before the last we spent at the Del Mar.

– Roberto Bolaño, from The Third Reich, trans. Natasha Wimmer (full excerpt in NPR)

The Third Reich cover redux

The US cover is electric. The stupendous UK cover (box) declares open war.

(Amazon UK)

The Third Reich cover

While I'm still giddy at the sight of this parenthetical beauty, I already want to turn on the reading light for this:

(Amazon page)

Excerpt from The Third Reich

Speakesy has a short excerpt from The Third Reich (trans. Natasha Wimmer). Here.

The first chapter in Spanish can be accessed here (pdf format).

The 2011 Roberto Bolaño Reading Challenge

The Third Reich serialized in The Paris Review

The Paris Review announced in its blog that it will publish The Third Reich (translated by Natasha Wimmer, illustrated by Leanne Shapton) in four issues, after which it will appear in hardcover from FSG.

The 2011 Roberto Bolaño Reading Challenge

Natasha Wimmer finished with her translation of The Third Reich

"I’ve just finished the translation of the latest posthumous work by Roberto Bolaño, a novel called The Third Reich. The book was a joy to translate, mostly because Bolaño seems to have had such fun writing it. It’s a buoyant novel, ominous at moments but mostly just funny."

– Natasha Wimmer in Granta (Online Only)

The 2011 Roberto Bolaño Reading Challenge