The Third Reich by Roberto Bolao

The Third Reich by Roberto Bolao

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

On vacation with his girlfriend, Ingeborg, the German war-game champion Udo Berger returns to a small town on the Costa Brava where he spent his summers as a child. There, they meet another vacationing German couple, who introduce them to the darker side of the resort town's life. Soon Udo is enmeshed in a round of Third Reich, his favorite World War II strategy game, with a shadowy local called El Quemado. As the game draws to its conclusion, Udo discovers that the outcome may be all too real.

Written in 1989, The Third Reich is Roberto Bolaño's stunning exploration of memory and violence--and a rare glimpse at a world-class writer coming into his own.

Roberto Bolao (1953-2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and resided in Mexico, France, and Spain later in his life. He has been praised as the most interesting writer to emerge from south of the Rio Grande in a long time (Los Angeles Times) and as the real deal and the rarest (Susan Sontag). The famous Premio Herralde de Novela and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos are among his many awards. He is usually regarded as the generation's greatest Latin American writer. The Romantic Dogs, 2666, The Spirit of Science Fiction, By Night in Chile, Distant Star, Last Evenings on Earth, and The Savage Detectives are among his works.