The Spirit of Science Fiction

Written in the 1980s but published only in 2016, it is a novel of youth that remarkably anticipates the literary universe the author would develop in the following decades.

Mexico City (Once More) follows two young writers, Jan Schrella and Remo Morán, figures who directly evoke the future protagonists of The Savage Detectives. Between cheap boarding houses, cafés, and fever dreams, both live in a kind of creative laboratory, a space where literature, love, and utopia blur together.

“Science fiction” does not belong to the realm of genre. It evokes the radical imagination of those who believe that writing can reinvent the world. Humor, delirium, lyricism. 

Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) was born in Chile and lived between Mexico and Spain. A poet before becoming a novelist, he became one of the central figures of contemporary Latin American literature. His work combines the energy of youth with a mature lucidity about violence, art, and time. A way of confronting chaos without renouncing beauty.