The Spirit of Science Fiction

<p><b>Two young poets, Jan and Remo, find themselves adrift in Mexico City.</b><br><br>Obsessed with poetry, and, above all, with science fiction, they are eager to forge a life in the literary world. But as close as these friends are, the city tugs them in opposite directions.<br><br>Jan withdraws from the world, shutting himself in their shared rooftop apartment where he feverishly composes fan letters to the stars of science fiction. Meanwhile, Remo runs head-first into the future, spending his days and nights with a circle of wild young writers, seeking pleasure in the city’s labyrinthine streets, rundown cafes, and murky bathhouses.<br><br>TRANSLATED BY NATASHA WIMMER<br><br><b>‘Fascinating... Achingly beautiful... It reads like a dispatch from beyond the grave’ <i>New Yorker</i></b><br><br><b><i>‘The Spirit of Science Fiction</i></b><b> functions as a kind of key to the jewelled box of Bolaño’s fictions... A cocktail of sorrow and ecstasy’ <i>Paris Review</i></b></p>