This book provides a comprehensive, indispensable map for readers at all levels to explore the pivotal contexts, shaping events, and enduring concerns informing the diverse body of work of one of the most consequential writers of the late 20th century and the turn of the millennium.

Part I. Geographical, Social and Historical Contexts: 1. Mapping Bolaño's worlds Jonathan B. Monroe; 2. Chile, 1953¿1973 María Inés Lagos; 3. The Pinochet era, 1973¿1990 Michael J. Lazarra; 4. Dictatorships in the Southern Cone Ksenija Bilbija; 5. Mexico City, 1968 Viviane Mahieux; 6. Mexico City, Paris, and life versus art Rubén Gallo; 7. Spain, Europe, 1977¿2003 Ana Fernández-Cebrían; 8. Transatlantic currents: Europe and the Americas Rory O'Bryen; Part II. Shaping Events and Literary History: 9. France, Spain, 1938 Juli Highfill; 10. The Cold War Patrick Iber; 11. After the fall of the wall: 1989¿2001 Edmundo Paz Soldán; 12. Latin American literature Ilan Stavans; 13. French connections Dominique Jullien; 14. German and Russian precursors Thomas O. Beebee; 15. After the two 9/11s: Santiago de Chile, 1973, New York, 2001 Nicholas Birns; Part III: Genres, Discourses, Media: 16. Essays and short stories José Luis Venegas; 17. Poetry I: the ghost that runs through the writing Rubén Medina; 18. Poetry II: parody and the question of history Sergio Villalobos-Ruminott; 19. The novel and the canon Roberto González Echevarría; 20. Detective fiction Pablo Piccato; 21. Journalism, media, mass culture Tania Gentic; 22. Literary criticism and literary history Ana Del Sarto; Part IV. Aesthetics, Culture, and Politics: 23. The abomination of literature Brett Levinson; 24. Religion and politics Aníbal González; 25. Gender and sexuality Ana Forcinito; 26. Race and ethnicity Juan Decastro; 27. Trauma and collective memory Ryan F. Long; 28. Fictions of the avant-gardes Michelle Clayton; 29. Love and friendship Ignacio López-Calvo; 30. World literature: twenty-first-century legacies Héctor Hoyos.