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The Spirit of Science Fiction: A Novel Audiobook
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From a master of contemporary fiction, a tale of bohemian youth on the make in Mexico City
Two young poets, Jan and Remo, find themselves adrift in Mexico City. Obsessed with poetry, and, above all, with science fiction, they are eager to forge a life in the literary world--or sacrifice themselves to it. Roberto Bolaño's The Spirit of Science Fiction is a story of youth hungry for revolution, notoriety, and sexual adventure, as they work to construct a reality out of the fragments of their dreams.
But as close as these friends are, the city tugs them in opposite directions. Jan withdraws from the world, shutting himself in their shared rooftop apartment where he feverishly composes fan letters to the stars of science fiction and dreams of cosmonauts and Nazis. Meanwhile, Remo runs headfirst into the future, spending his days and nights with a circle of wild young writers, seeking pleasure in the city's labyrinthine streets, rundown cafés, and murky bathhouses.
This kaleidoscopic work of strange and tender beauty is a fitting introduction for readers uninitiated into the thrills of Roberto Bolaño's fiction, and an indispensable addition to an ecstatic and transgressive body of work.
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"With words alone, Bolaño summons a visual world, creating in this book, as in his others, what Mario Vargas Llosa has called ‘images and fantasies for posterity’… admirers will find in these themes and players a satisfying proleptic glimpse of his picaresque masterpiece, 1998’s The Savage Detectives… [This] gem-choked puzzle of a book… serves as a key to Bolano’s later work, unlocking clues to his abiding obsessions … [and] is a hardy forerunner that stands on its own."
— The New York Times Book Review
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[Bolaño] is a kinetic, epiphanic writer, and even his earliest works tremble like a whirring, unpredictable machine. . . The Spirit of Science Fiction functions as a kind of key to the jeweled box of Bolaño’s fictions, an index of the images that would come to obsess him. . . . longtime Bolaño fans will doubtless enjoy this familiar cocktail of sorrow and ecstasy.
— Paris Review -
An entertaining, lyrical and accomplished novel.
— Wall Street Journal -
“A fascinating blueprint of Bolaño’s poetics and of the extent to which he drew from the Beat literature of William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac . . . it also has achingly beautiful passages, and its lessons about the reach of American policy resonate to this day. A superbly talented young man wrote it, in 1984, believing that truth reached through art was the only means to revolution. In this sense, it reads like a dispatch from beyond the grave.
— The New Yorker “This is vintage Bolaño: a lusty and rapturous shaggy-dog tale of Latin American exiles and bohemian youth. -
An unusual pleasure to read. You can almost feel Bolaño shaking out his limbs. . . It's a joy to watch such a brilliant stylist practice his moves, and to see such a brilliant mind expand on the page.
— NPR -
An impressionistic and prescient treasure.
— Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture, Top Reads for February -
“A minor gem. . . Bolaño’s lusty, laughing passion for art and literature, for women and Mexico City, is tangible here.
— Washington Post -
An intriguing and dreamy portrait of two writers taking different paths in their pursuit of their love of literature, hoping to discover their voices.
— Publishers Weekly -
A sort of raw spinoff of the extraordinary initial section of the first of Bolaño’s international hits, The Savage Detectives . . . Maybe it’s precisely the sense of reading a work under construction that makes The Spirit of Science Fiction such a pleasure.
— Alvaro Enrigue, Book Page
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About Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and later lived in Mexico, France, and Spain. He has been acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as “by far the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time” and as “the real thing and the rarest” by Susan Sontag. Among his many prizes are the prestigious Premio Herralde de Novela and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos. Bolaño is widely considered the greatest Latin American writer of his generation. He wrote nine novels, two story collections, and five books of poetry before his death at the age of fifty.
About the Narrators
Anthony Perez is a Miami, Florida, native who, from a young age, found great passion for words, using them in mediums such as poetry, stage, and film. He later concentrated on theater, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Florida State University, focusing on Shakespeare, voice, and dialects, along with specialized Master Class training under Sir Ian McKellen. His talent and love for his craft have brought him to Los Angeles, where he is currently a stage and film actor.
Anthony Rey Perez is an experienced actor and voiceover artist who has worked on everything from commercials to television and film to audiobooks. The books he narrates span ages, classes, genres, and borders.
Kyla Garcia is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. Born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, she discovered acting at the age of eight when she played Lady Macbeth in a children’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. She made her off-Broadway debut at fifteen when she played Dorothy in Oz: A Twisted Musical. Eleven years after she discovered her passion for acting, she would go on to play Lady Macbeth once again in London at the Globe Theatre, where she studied Shakespeare during her third year at Mason Gross School of the Arts. She received her BFA in acting from Rutgers University.
Kyla Garcia is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. Born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, she discovered acting at the age of eight when she played Lady Macbeth in a children’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. She made her off-Broadway debut at fifteen when she played Dorothy in Oz: A Twisted Musical. Eleven years after she discovered her passion for acting, she would go on to play Lady Macbeth once again in London at the Globe Theatre, where she studied Shakespeare during her third year at Mason Gross School of the Arts. She received her BFA in acting from Rutgers University.