Published posthumously, 2666 is a sprawling five-part novel that circles the fictional Mexican border city of Santa Teresa, where hundreds of women are being murdered. Its interlocking books follow four European critics chasing a reclusive German novelist, a widowed philosophy professor, an American sports journalist, the unsolved femicides themselves, and finally the life of the vanished writer Benno von Archimboldi. Bolaño weaves war, scholarship, and violence into a vast meditation on evil and literature.
Books mentioned in 2666 (22)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: “the pharmacist answered that he liked books like The Metamorphosis, Bartleby, A Simple Heart, A Christmas Carol.”
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka: “he liked books like The Metamorphosis, Bartleby, A Simple Heart, A Christmas Carol.”
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville: “He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pécuchet.”
A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert: “he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pécuchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers.”
Bouvard and Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert: “he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pécuchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers.”
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville: “he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pécuchet.”
The Trial by Franz Kafka: “He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick.”
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: “A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers.”
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens: “A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers.”
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes: “And may I remind you that Cervantes wrote Don Quixote more or less at the same age I am now.”
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal: “If Stendhal, as it is said, danced when he read Balzac's critique of The Charterhouse of Parma.”
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: “Fate thought it would be The Communist Manifesto, maybe because in the living room, piled in corners, he had seen several copies.”
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “a teacher recommended that he read The Sorrows of Young Werther, in whose hero he would find a kindred spirit.”
Petersburg by Andrei Bely: “he read Platonov's first stories and Babel... and Andrey Bely, whose novel Petersburg kept him up for four days.”
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin: “in 1929, too, he read a recently published novel, Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, which struck him as notable and memorable.”
The Three Leaps of Wang-lun by Alfred Döblin: “drove him to seek out more books by Döblin, finding in the Moscow Library The Three Leaps of Wang-lun (1915).”
The Slave Trade by Hugh Thomas: “he went to the only decent bookstore in the city and bought The Slave Trade by Hugh Thomas, the former professor at Sandhurst.”
Modern Criminal Investigation by Harry Söderman and John J. O'Connell: “Modern Criminal Investigation by Harry Söderman and John J. [O'Connell]”
The Informer in Law Enforcement by Malachi L. Harney and John C. Cross: “The Informer in Law Enforcement by Malachi L. [Harney]”
The Deluge by Henryk Sienkiewicz: “"With God's help, the sun will shine again on Poland." The Deluge, Sienkiewicz.”
Il libro di cucina di Juana Inés de la Cruz by Angelo Morino: “the book he was reading was called Il libro di cucina di Juana Inés de la Cruz, by Angelo Morino, and it was written in Italian.”
The Mangy Parrot by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi: “Amalfitano was attacked until he resembled the bird in Azuela's Mangy Parrot, gutted and plucked to the last feather.”
Books that mention 2666 (1)
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine: “I've decided on Roberto Bolaño's unfinished novel 2666”