WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CHRIS POWER 'A master of the short form' Independent Wide-ranging, suggestive, and ever-daring, Roberto Bolano's short stories map out the dark terrain that he would go on to explore in his novellas and epic novels. From melancholic portraits of exile and its folklore to a rogue's gallery of desperate characters futilely attempting to unearth the animating secrets of the world, each of Bolano's short fictions adds yet another door, a window, a secret passage onto the sinister, eerie universe that Bolano brought to life across his body of work. Bringing together Last Evenings on Earth, The Return and The Insufferable Gaucho, as well as Bolano's posthumously published stories, this new book marks the first time these fictions have been collected in one edition, allowing for a major reappraisal of the vital place that the short story commands for Bolano's literary legacy. 'Bolano was a flat-out genius, one of the greatest writers of our time' Paul Auster 'Bolano was a game changer- his field was politics, poetry and melancholia . . . and his writing was always unparalleled' Mariana Enriquez