A Little Lumpen Novelita

Published in Spain just before Bolano’s death,A Little Lumpen Novelitapercolates with a fierce and tender love of women
“Now I am a mother and a married woman, but not long ago I led a life of crime”: so Bianca begins her tale of growing up the hard way in Rome. Orphaned overnight as a teenager—“our parents died in a car crash on their first vacation without us”—she drops out of school, gets a crappy job, and drifts into bad company. Her younger brother brings home two petty criminals who …