Marcelo, a clerk in a Barcelona office who might himself have emerged from a novel by Kafka, inhabits a world peopled by characters in literature. He once wrote a novel about the impossibility of love, but since then he has written nothing. He has, in short, become a 'Bartleby', so named after the c[...]

Trying to be Ernest Hemingway is never easy. After reading A Moveable Feast, aspiring novelist Enrique Vila-Matas moves to Paris to be closer to his literary idol, Ernest Hemingway. Surrounded by the writers, artists and eccentrics of '70s Parisian cafe culture, he dresses in black, buys two pairs o[...]

One night, a renowned and now retired literary publisher has a vivid dream that takes place in Dublin, a city he s never visited. The central scene of the dream is a funeral in the era of Ulysses. The publisher would give anything to know if an unidentified character in his dream is the great author[...]

An author (a version of Vila-Matas himself) presents a short history of a secret society, the Shandies, who are obsessed with the concept of portable literature. The society is entirely imagined, but in this rollicking, intellectually playful book, its members include writers and artists like Marcel[...]

Presents a novel about literature and the art of writing and how life never quite goes to plan.

Efter mange års skriveblokering vælger fortælleren at undersøge andre tilfælde i verdenslitteraturen, fx Rulfo, Rimbaud, Walser, Salinger og mange andre og lave en bog kun med fodnoter til de afbrudte forfatterskaber[...]

Bartleby ja kumppanit on saavuttanut nopeasti julkaisunsa (2000) jälkeen kulttimaineen Euroopassa. Teosta on verrattu muun muassa Camus'n ja Kafkan teoksiin. Kirja on varsin omintakeinen ja se tuo oman mielenkiintoisen lisänsä eurooppalaiseen modernistisen romaanin perinteeseen. Kirjan päähenki[...]