Roberto Bolaño

His massive epic *2666*, published posthumously in 2004, is his longest and most acclaimed work. The sprawling novel connects the lives of various writers to a series of horrific, unsolved murders in a fictional Mexican city.

Published in 1998, the novel chronicles the lives and wanderings of two rebellious Latin American poets, Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, founders of a literary movement called the visceral realists. The narrative is told through a kaleidoscope of testimonials from people they encounter over several decades.

Bolaño positioned himself in opposition to the magical realism of older Latin American writers like Gabriel García Márquez. Instead, he is considered a pioneer of a raw, often bleak literary style sometimes called "visceral realism."

Although born in Chile, he spent much of his youth in Mexico before moving to Spain in the late 1970s. He lived in Catalonia, Spain, working various odd jobs—including as a camp counselor and dishwasher—while he wrote poetry and fiction, until his death in 2003.