Roberto Bolano, 50; Dropout Became a Leading Chilean Writer
Roberto Bolano, 50, a high school dropout who became one of Chile’s most respected writers, died Tuesday of liver disease. Bolano, who had lived in Spain since 1977, died in a Barcelona hospital as he awaited a transplant, said local officials in Blanes, the Spanish town where he lived.
Bolano lived in Mexico in the late 1960s. In 1972, he returned to Chile, but he was forced to flee when Gen. Augusto Pinochet seized power the following year.
The author wrote more than a dozen novels, including “By Night in Chile,” which was published in English by Harvill earlier this year, and several books of poetry. He won several literary awards, including the Romulo Gallegos prize for “Los Detectives Salvajes” (“The Wild Detectives”).
The Times of London called “By Night in Chile” “deadly earnest, foreboding and yet joyfully whimsical.”
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