The Skating Rink

The Skating Rink,By Roberto Bolano, published by New Directions

In the apparently inexhaustible posthumous career of the Chilean writer Roberto Bolano, a significant second act will soon be upon us, leaving some readers to clap excitedly while others throw up their hands in submission: The large number of books by Bolano already available is soon to double.

At the very least, readers yet to experience Bolano's writing - its narrative variety and verve, its linguistic resourcefulness, its unusual combination of gravity and playfulness, brutality and tenderness - increasingly face the very practical problem of having to divine which book on the widening shelf of Bolano's should be read first.

The Skating Rink, the only new Bolano appearing this year, won't make the decision any easier: This short, exquisite novel is another unlikely masterpiece, as sui generis as all his books so far.