This is where the story should end, but life is not as kind as literature...

A journey to Acapulco gradually becomes a descent into the underworld. An elderly South American writer instructs a protege in the subterfuges of entering work for provincial literary prizes. A litany unfolds, offering sixty-nine reasons why not to dance with Pablo Neruda.

The melancholy folklore of exile, as Roberto Bolano once put it, pervades the fourteen haunting stories of Last Evenings on Earth. Set in the Chilean exile diaspora of Latin America and Europe, and peopled by Bolano's beloved failed generation, this collection was the first to introduce the English-speaking world to Bolanos immeasurable gifts as a short-story writer.

TRANSLATED BY CHRIS ANDREWS

May be the most haunting and mesmerising collection I have ever read Daily Telegraph

It is a shame that Bolano has no more evenings on earth, his unique voice asserting the importance and exuberance of literature will be sorely missed Guardian