In the first biography of this novelist and poet, journalist Monica Maristain tracks Roberto Bolano from his childhood in Chile to his youth in Mexico and his early infatuation with literature, to his beginnings as a poet, and to the stardom that came with the publication of The Savage Detectives (1998) and 2666 (2004). She interviewed his family and friends, talking to some on the record for the first time. Her years of research show through as the text is rich with details about his life, reflecting her admiration for both his work and the writer himself.
