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Enrique Vila-Matas
Enrique Vila-Matas was born in Barcelona in 1948. His works include Bartleby & Co, Montano, Never Any End to Paris, The Vertical Journey, winner of the Premio Romulo Gallegos, and Dublinesque, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. 'February 2008' is an excerpt from his novel Dietario Voluble, published by Anagrama in 2008.

Articles Available Online


Writers from the Old Days

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Issue No. 13

Enrique Vila-Matas

TR. J. S. Tennant

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Issue No. 13

Augusto Monterroso wrote that sooner or later the Latin American writer faces three possible fates: exile, imprisonment or burial.   I met Roberto Bolaño...

poetry

January 2015

Litanies of an Audacious Rosary

Enrique Vila-Matas

TR. Rosalind Harvey

poetry

January 2015

FEBRUARY 2008   * I’m outraged, but I’ve learned a way of reasoning that quickly defuses my exasperation. This...

October 12, 1976, Soho, London Andy stood in the alley outside the Prince of Wales He felt in the pocket of his leather jacket and found most of a sheet of orange sunshine Andy couldn’t remember putting it there He couldn’t remember how he got to the cinema from the squat in Stoke Newington But he knew that it was morning, that he was in a crowd of people, some heavy, heavy people, some lightweights, old freaks, young punks, odd straights, and that Fantasia was about to start inside Andy balled the blotter in his hand and quickly stuffed it in his mouth He gagged but kept chewing until it was gone He turned and gestured to a wrinkly geezer wearing a tartan scarf but no shirt who was seated on a blackened sheet of cardboard in front of the fire exit The man held up a can of bitter Andy bolted a swig and handed it back ‘Ta very much’, said one, ‘Nae bother’, said the other A short time later Andy was sat in the dark amid zoo noises, crying and slurping, and that is when the lights began   April 13, 1972, Blackpool Andy opened the front door and dropped two plastic bags at the foot of the stairs: one with his schoolwork, the other with his PE kit in He went into the kitchen, turned off the radio, took a bowl from the draining board, opened a cupboard door and took out a packet of Weetabix Andy put two biscuits into the bowl, hesitated, and took one out, placing it back in the packet He opened the fridge, which was empty except for a withered scallion and a dried piece of cheese Andy returned the remaining Weetabix biscuit to the packet, folded it neatly down and put it back in the cupboard He washed the bowl and placed it on the draining board Andy went into the living room, sat down and stared into the empty fireplace   January 5, 1990, Liverpool Andy kneeled on the wooden floor, naked and sobbing, snot roping out of his nose and down

Contributor

August 2014

Enrique Vila-Matas

Contributor

August 2014

Enrique Vila-Matas was born in Barcelona in 1948. His works include Bartleby & Co, Montano, Never Any End to...

Leaving Theories Behind

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Issue No. 9

Enrique Vila-Matas

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Issue No. 9

I. I went to Lyon because an organisation called Villa Fondebrider invited me to give a talk on the relationship between fiction and reality as...

READ NEXT

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May 2012

Film: Palestine Festival of Literature

Omar Robert Hamilton

feature

May 2012

Resistance needs to be recorded. Resistance needs symbols: ideas that can travel faster than speech, last longer than memory....

fiction

May 2015

A History of Money

Alan Pauls

TR. Ellie Robins

fiction

May 2015

He hasn’t yet turned fifteen when he sees his first dead person in the flesh. He’s somewhat astonished that...

Interview

May 2013

Interview with Darian Leader

Kishani Widyaratna

Interview

May 2013

A practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst, Darian Leader is one of a dying breed. It is no overstatement to say that...

 

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