Die Eisbahn

Roberto Bolaño's early masterpiece finally in English. Nuria is a figure skater. All adjectives bounce off her radiant beauty. At least that's what three men think, who would give everything for her. When she is expelled from the national team, one of them embezzles money. He uses it to create an ice rink in a dilapidated villa, just for her. The second man watches this suspiciously, while the third is consumed by jealousy. In the end, there is a corpse on the ice. What does each of the three know? "The Ice Rink" is the first published novel by Roberto Bolaño, heralding his masterpiece "The Savage Detectives." Bolaño secretly wrote it while working as a night watchman at a campsite on the Costa Brava. Like a character in the novel, he was a poet from Mexico, listening to the dark tales within him. "Every time I read Bolaño, I feel inspired... a master of language." Patti Smith. "Half a sinister crime novel, half another classic from the new patron saint of literature." Sam Anderson, New York Magazine.