Enrique Vila-Matas

The award-winning newest novel by Spain’s premier writer—a metafictional meditation on the limits and possibilities of literature The narrator of Montevideo is an itinerant writer and erstwhile drug pusher in the throes of a personal and literary transformation. Increasingly disillusioned with life in Paris and hoping for an artistic breakthrough, he ventures out in search of a “new style.” His quest takes him to Barcelona and then to a hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay, called The Cervantes, where seemingly both Julio Cortázar and Adolfo Bioy Casares found inspiration. Montevideo, however, is not the final stop: Bogotá, Reykjavík, New York, and St. Gallen in Switzerland are ahead on the narrator’s journey. But to what? In this brilliant new novel, Enrique Vila-Matas deepens and extends his inquiry into the purposes and functions of fiction: Can the products of the imagination be set on paper, coherently and faithfully? Or is literature forever destined to fall hopelessly short—consigned to be nothing more than an impoverished, inaccurate representation? Moving between cities and genres, from coarse slapstick to insightful criticism, from travelogue to metaphysical speculation, Montevideo is a narrative vortex, a labyrinthine tale of mirrors and illusions.

Vuelve el Enrique Vila-Matas de Bartleby y compa a. Abundante, inclasificable y particularmente original. Mario Aznar, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos Es reconfortante que un autor como Vila-Matas, tan consagrado y tan un nimemente aplaudido, haga del regocijo del lector su principal objetivo, sin por ello descuidar la m xima autoexigencia. Juan Marqu s, La Lectura, El Mundo Con Enrique Vila-Matas s lo tienes que dejarte llevar porque est s en manos de un maestro. Paul Auster Y si la lectura fuera un experimento secreto... o una forma desesperada de amor? En un cuarto oscuro de su casa, Vidal Escabia ha reunido setenta y un libros. Cada ma ana, elige uno al azar, lee un fragmento y lo destina a su misterioso Canon personal. Pero nada de esto es casual: lo que descubre en cada texto transforma su d a... y tambi n su vida. Canon de c mara oscura es una novela singular y provocadora, donde la l nea entre lector y narrador, entre realidad y ficci n, se difumina. Es Vidal un hombre obsesionado por su hija ausente o un androide infiltrado en la Barcelona cotidiana? Est construyendo un mapa ntimo a trav s de la literatura o desvelando un complot escondido entre las p ginas? Una historia magn tica sobre la fuerza de los libros, la fragilidad de la memoria y el extra o poder de reescribirnos cada d a. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION The return of Enrique Vila-Matas in the spirit of Bartleby & Co. "Abundant, unclassifiable, and particularly original." Mario Aznar, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos "It's refreshing that an author as acclaimed and unanimously praised as Vila-Matas makes the reader's delight his main goal--without compromising his own high standards." Juan Marqu s, La Lectura, El Mundo "With Enrique Vila-Matas, you just have to let yourself go--you're in the hands of a master." Paul Auster What if reading were a secret experiment... or a desperate act of love? In a dark room of his home, Vidal Escabia has gathered seventy-one books. Each morning, he selects one at random, reads a fragment, and adds it to his mysterious personal Canon. But none of this is accidental: what he uncovers in each text transforms his day--and his life. Canon de c mara oscura (Darkroom Canon) is a singular and provocative novel where the line between reader and narrator, between reality and fiction, becomes blurred. Is Vidal a man obsessed with his absent daughter, or an android infiltrated into everyday Barcelona? Is he building an intimate map through literature--or uncovering a hidden conspiracy between the pages? A magnetic story about the power of books, the fragility of memory, and the strange ability to rewrite ourselves each day.

Part picaresque novel, part intimate diary, part memoir and philosophical musings, Enrique Vila-Matas has created a labyrinth in which writers as various as Cervantes, Sterne, Kafka, Musil, Bola o, Coetzee, and Sebald cross endlessly surprising paths. The narrator of Montano's Malady is a writer named Jose who is so obsessed with literature that he finds it impossible to distinguish between real life and fictional reality. Trying to piece together his life of loss and pain, Jose leads the reader on an unsettling journey from European cities such as Nantes, Barcelona, Lisbon, Prague and Budapest to the Azores and the Chilean port of Valparaiso.Exquisitely witty and erudite, it confirms the opinion of Bernardo Axtaga that Vila-Matas is "the most important living Spanish writer."

«En dikter, sa Bolaño også, kunne tåle alt, noe som vel måtte være det samme som å si at et menneske kunne tåle alt. Men Bolaño var ikke enig i dette siste, for han mente at det var få ting et menneske kunne utholde, mens en dikter, derimot, kunne utholde alt. Ja vel? Jeg tror, eller vil tro, at også poesiens verden er befolket av idioter. Ifølge W. H. Auden var Alfred Tennyson blant dem, han som i sin ungdom lignet en sigøyner og senere så ut som en gammel og møkkete munk. Av alle de engelske dikterne, sa Auden, hadde Tennyson hatt det fineste øret, men sannsynligvis var han også den dummeste av alle.» Montevideo er postmodernistisk metafiksjon på sitt aller beste, og er av kritikere blitt kalt forfatterens hittil beste verk. Historien handler om en avdanket forfatter som i en livskrise begynner å se små tegn og symboler på dører og i rom. Disse tolker han som signaler på at han bør begynne å skrive igjen. Men i sitt ønske om å skape noe nytt blir han konfrontert med det umulige - hvordan fortelle historien på en måte den aldri før har blitt fortalt, når det virker som om alt allerede har blitt sagt? Enrique Vila-Matas er en av de mest prestisjetunge og originale stemmene i spansk samtidslitteratur. Han er også en ivrig bidragsyter i litteraturdebatten og opptatt verdens tvetydighet, og avstanden mellom virkelighet og fiksjon. I Montevideo opphøyes kunsten samtidig som den latterliggjøres. Dette er en fornøyelig roman om et karakteristisk trekk ved vår tid - det inderlige ønsket om å være unik og original. OVERSATT AV CHRISTIAN RUGSTAD «Montevideo er en betraktning av romanen som sjanger, dens transformasjon og gjenfødelse» - Eva Cosculluela, ABC Cultural

Mac har blivit arbetslös och lever nu på sin frus inkomst. Vid sextio års ålder och med all tid i världen beslutar han sig för att börja föra dagbok. Han plitar flitigt ner observationer från sina dagliga promenader i kvarteret, den här sommaren som är den varmaste Barcelona upplevt på hundra år. I dagboken redogör han också för sina utflykter i litteraturens värld. Särskilt intresserad är han av hur de författare han läser använder sig av upprepningar i sina böcker, så när han ramlar över en gammal och lite misslyckad bok av den kände författaren som bor i kvarteret blir han genast lockad av att skriva en ny och förbättrad version av den. Men en sak bestämde sig Mac tidigt för: dagboken ska absolut inte bli någon roman."En författare som saknar motstycke i den spanska samtidslitteraturen." Roberto Bolano"Å ena sidan djupt komisk, å andra sidan så skarp att du inte kan göra annat än att kapitulera inför att du är i händerna på en mästare." Paul Auster "Lekfull, rolig och en av Spaniens bästa författare." Colm ToibinEnrique Vila-Matas (född 1948 i Barcelona) debuterade som författare på 70-talet och har givit ut över fyrtio böcker. Han har kultstatus i den spansk­språkiga världen och har varit en stor inspirationskälla för författare som Roberto Bolano och Paul Auster. Mac och hans stötestenar nomi­nerades till det internationella Bookerpriset 2021. Yvonne Blank har sedan tidigare översatt fyra Vila-Matas-romaner för Tranan och har byggt upp ett eget Vila-Matas-bibliotek som hon fyller med böcker som hon läst för att han hänvisar till dem eller citerar ur dem. Den här gången har hon översatt tillsam­mans med Elisabeth Helms, som tidigare översatt författare som Mario Vargas Llosa och Carlos Fuentes.

Una fascinante meditaci n narrativa sobre la originalidad en la literatura, de la mano de uno de nuestros narradores m s originales En un caser n medio derruido de Cadaqu s, Simon Schneider vive entregado al tranquilo oficio de proporcionar citas literarias a otros escritores, entre los que se cuenta su misterioso hermano Rainer, afincado desde hace a os en Estados Unidos y convertido en un artista secreto como Thomas Pynchon. Sin embargo, todo se precipita un fin de semana de 2017, cuando Simon sale a dar un paseo en busca de inspiraci n y acaba repasando su historia de cara a la inminente visita de Rainer. El encuentro posterior pondr de relieve dos maneras antag nicas de entender la creaci n literaria, as como una soluci n posible al problema de la originalidad, presentado en esta novela con deliciosa iron a y una brillante destreza narrativa. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION A fascinating narrative meditation on originality in literature, from one of our most original storytellers In a half-collapsed mansion in Cadaqu s, Simon Schneider lives dedicated to the quiet job of providing literary quotes to other writers, including his mysterious brother Rainer, who has lived in the United States for years and has become a secret artist like Thomas Pynchon. However, it all comes to a head one weekend in 2017, when Simon goes for a walk in search of inspiration and ends up reviewing his story in the face of Rainer's imminent visit. The subsequent encounter will highlight two antagonistic ways of understanding literary creation, as well as a possible solution to the problem of originality, presented in this novel with delicious irony and brilliant storytelling prowess.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE Enrique Vila-Matas's new novel is perhaps his greatest: 'playful and funny and among the best Spanish novelists' Colm TóibínSixty-something Mac is not writing a novel. He is writing a diary, which no one will ever read. His wife, Carmen, thinks he is wasting his time. But Mac persists, diligently recording his daily walks through the neighbourhood during the hottest summer Barcelona has seen in over a century. But soon he notices that life is exhibiting strange literary overtones, and in the sweltering heat, he becomes ever more immersed in literature - a literature haunted by death but alive with the sheer pleasure of writing.Intricate, erudite and practically fizzing on the page, Mac and His Problem is a masterpiece of metafiction and a testament to the power and playfulness of great literature.'So deeply comical on the one hand, and so deeply poignant on the other, that you just have to give yourself up to it because you're in the hands of a master' Paul Auster'[Vila-Matas] chooses humour in a way that allows him to have big ideas while relentlessly making fun of them' Sunday Telegraph

Telefonen ringer hjemme hos den catalanske forfatter, i røret lyder en indladende kvindestemme, der, på vegne af et irsk ægtepar, Hr. og Fru MacGuffin, vil invitere forfatteren på middag. De har et uimodståeligt tilbud, fortæller kvinden; de vil afsløre selveste universets mysterium for ham. Forfatteren takker tøvende ja, vel vidende at det naturligvis er en spøg. Til middagen dukker ægteparret MacGuffin ikke op, men i stedet en ung kvinde, der inviterer forfatteren til at deltage i Documenta 13, den største og mest eftertragtede internationale udstilling for samtidskunst, der afholdes hvert femte år i Kassel. Forfatteren er begejstret. Han har i årevis drømt om at blive anerkendt af avantgardekunstnerne, som en af deres. Der er bare den hage ved det, at hans rolle i udstillingen er at være en installation; han skal sidde på en kinesisk restaurant i udkanten af byen og skrive. Under sine lange gåture i Kassel bliver forfatteren, til sin egen overraskelse, overvældet af energi og optimisme, og ikke det sædvanlige tungsind, der plejer at ramme ham sidst på dagen. Det er kunstens spontane og fantasifulde svar på tilværelsens tristesse. Temaet for Documenta 13 er Kollaps og Resitution, et tema, der både indrammer byen Kassel, der under Anden verdenskrig var centrum for Nazitysklands våbenindustri, og derfor blev så godt som udslettet i slutningen af krigen. Men temaet omkranser også forfatterens ugelange ophold i byen, hans oplevelse af - og forhold til avantgardekunsten, og i sidste ende til sit eget forfatterskab.Enrique Vila-Matas er født i 1948 i Barcelona, Spanien, og er forfatter til mere end 20 romaner, foruden utallige noveller, essays og artikler. Han har modtaget en række internationale priser og er oversat til flere en tredive forskellige sprog. Hans romaner er præget af en lun blanding af ironisk selvhøjtidelighed og en drillende, observant oprigtighed, der giver mindelser om forfattere som Joyce, Borges og Cervantes. Vila-Matas er medstifter og ridder af Finnegan Ordenen, en gruppe der har taget navn efter en pub i Dalkey, Ireland og James Joyces' sidste roman Finnegans Wake. Gruppen mødes hvert år den 16. juni i Dublin for at hædre Joyce. "En underfundig og anderledes roman, som varmt kan anbefales. Det er en meget underholdende og følsom roman, som tager læseren med på en fantastisk rejse ind i en original og unik fortælling. Man kan roligt læne sig tilbage i lænestolen og nyde en læseoplevelse i særklasse." (Lektørudtalelse, DBC)

Enrique Vila-Matas, Olivia Sudjic, Jon Fosse, Inger Wold Lund, Vi Khi Nao, Patrícia Portela, Lucie Elven, Mara Coson, Christina Hesselholdt, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, Naja Marie Aidt, Michael Salu, Joanna Walsh, Jakuta Alikavazovic, Anna Zett, Emilio Fraia, Frode Grytten, and Olga Ravn Translations by Margaret Jull Costa, Zoë Perry, Martin Aitken, Denise Newman, Paul Russell Garrett, Damion Searls, and Rahul Bery Eighteen international writers respond to the open-ended period of social distancing, closures, and illness caused by Covid-19. Compiled during the initial lockdown in Europe, this special collection is a meteoric publishing project with contributions from some of the most exciting and innovative authors working today. Meditating on notions of distance and closeness, sameness and alterity, extinguishing and kindling, Tools for Extinction considers how a common pause might give rise to new modes of domesticity and shift experiences of time. What gestures and actions are we willing to perform to make ourselves, and each other, feel at ease – or at work? What tools and objects are useful, or unprecedentedly useless, to us in the process? And as our species’ trademark proclivity for projecting ourselves into the future is disrupted, might we come to see the buildings, animals, plants, and foodstuffs around us in a new light? The anthology takes its name from Steven Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog, a 1960s counterculture compendium of product reviews, essays, and articles on the themes of self-sufficiency, ecology, and alternative education. By giving “access to tools”, a new social order and a more sustainable Earth was imagined. Compiled, edited and with a foreword by Denise Rose Hansen.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZEEnrique Vila-Matas’s new novel is perhaps his greatest: 'playful and funny and among the best Spanish novelists' (Colm Tóibín)Mac is not writing a novel. He is writing a diary, which no one will ever read. At over sixty, and recently unemployed, Mac is a beginner, a novice, an apprentice – delighted by the themes of repetition and falsification, and humbly armed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of literature. Mac's wife, Carmen, thinks he is simply wasting his time and in danger of sliding further into depression and idleness. But Mac persists, diligently recording his daily walks through the neighbourhood. It is the hottest summer Barcelona has seen in over one hundred years.Soon, despite his best intentions (not to write a novel), Mac begins to notice that life is exhibiting strange literary overtones and imitating fragments of plot. As he sizzles in the heatwave, he becomes ever more immersed in literature – a literature haunted by death but alive with the sheer pleasure of writing.Intricate, erudite and practically fizzing on the page, Mac and His Problem is a masterpiece of metafiction and a testament to the power and playfulness of great literature.

Mac is currently unemployed and lives on his wife's earnings from her furniture restoration business. An avid reader, he decides at the age of sixty to keep a diary. Mac's wife, Carmen, a dyslexic born of dyslexic parents, thinks he is simply wasting his time and risking sliding further into depression--but Mac persists, and is determined that this diary will not turn into a novel. However, one day, he has a chance encounter with a near neighbor, a highly successful author who once wrote a collection of enigmatic, willfully obscure stories. Mac decides that, while he will not write his own stories, he will read, revise, and improve his neighbor's, which are mostly narrated by a ventriloquist who has lost the ability to speak in different voices. As Mac embarks on this task, he finds that the stories have a strange way of imitating life. Or is life imitating the stories? As the novel progresses, Mac becomes stranger and more adrift from reality, and both he and we become ever more immersed in literature: a literature haunted by death, but alive with the sheer pleasure of writing.

The first of four special publications to accompany a year-long display of works from Barcelona’s `la Caixa’ Collection at Whitechapel Gallery, selected by and featuring newlycommissioned fictional works by some of the most original English and Spanish-language writers working today. Established in Barcelona in 1985 by Fundación `la Caixa’, the `la Caixa’ Collection of Contemporary Art features over 1,000 works of international contemporary art from the last 30 years, including artists such as Antoni Tàpies, Joseph Beuys, Cornelia Parker and Doris Salcedo. For a major four-part display running from 2019–20, Whitechapel Gallery has partnered with `la Caixa’ Collection to showcase key pieces from the Collection, with each of the four `chapters’ curated by a contemporary writer, who will also contribute a brand new work of fiction in response to their selection. Each display will be accompanied by a fullyillustrated catalogue featuring the works displayed and the new text, accompanied by a foreword and introduction from both institutions.The first chapter, on display in Spring 2019, will be selected by the award-winning Spanish novelist Enrique Vila-Matas (b. Barcelona, 1948; lives and works in Barcelona), who has been described by The New Yorker as `arguably Spain’s most significant contemporary literary figure’. His work is often described as metafiction, a form of writing frequently used to examine the relationship between art and life. Vila-Matas’ books include Because She Never Asked (2015, originally written for Sophie Calle), The Illogic of Kassel (2014), Dublinesque (2010) and Bartleby & Co (2000), and his new book, titled Mac y su contratiempo (Mac’s Problem) will be released in English in April 2019, coinciding with the display at Whitechapel Gallery. Vila-Matas has selected works by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Miquel Barceló, Dora García, Carlos Pazos and Gerhard Richter.

En roman om en forfatter der ikke ligner Hemingway så meget som han selv tror. Til gengæld elsker han Paris, bor hos Marguerite Duras og spekulerer over begrebet ironi.

Una novela que defiende la repetici n y reflexiona sobre c mo se ha construido la historia de la literatura a partir de sucesivas variaciones del relato. En Mac y su contratiempo Enrique Vila-Matas revisita Una casa para siempre, as como su obsesi n por el origen de la literatura y el concepto de originalidad, el paso del tiempo o la posibilidad de corregir el pasado a trav s de la escritura. Mac no tiene empleo y ocupa sus horas deambulando y obsesionado con su vecino, un reconocido escritor al que detesta, especialmente cuando ste lo ignora. Un d a lo oye hablar con una librera acerca de su primer libro, Walter y su contratiempo, una obra de juventud de la que apenas se acuerda. Mac decide emprender un nuevo proyecto, el de reescribir y mejorar la novela como si fuera suya. Se inicia as un vertiginoso juego de espejos orquestada por este peculiar lector-autor. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Mac is currently unemployed and lives on his wife's earnings from her furniture restoration business. An avid reader, he decides at the age of sixty to keep a diary. Mac's wife, Carmen, a dyslexic born of dyslexic parents, thinks he is simply wasting his time and risking sliding further into depression--but Mac persists, and is determined that this diary will not turn into a novel. However, one day, he has a chance encounter with a near neighbor, a highly successful author who once wrote a collection of enigmatic, willfully obscure stories. Mac decides that, while he will not write his own stories, he will read, revise, and improve his neighbor's, which are mostly narrated by a ventriloquist who has lost the ability to speak in different voices. As Mac embarks on this task, he finds that the stories have a strange way of imitating life. Or is life imitating the stories? As the novel progresses, Mac becomes stranger and more adrift from reality, and both he and we become ever more immersed in literature: a literature haunted by death, but alive with the sheer pleasure of writing.