Distant Star

Distant Star is a novella by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño based on the last chapter of his fictional history book Nazi Literature in the Americas. Originally published in Spanish in 1996, the book was translated into English in 2004 by Chris Andrews. The story takes place amid the political upheaval that shook Chile in the 1970s. When Distant Star was published, Bolaño was not well known. His popularity came posthumously when his works were translated into English. Today he is considered one of Latin America’s most accomplished writers.

The story begins in the early 1970s at the University of Concepción, where an unnamed narrator (perhaps Arturo B., a frequent stand-in for Bolaño in his books) is a student and budding poet. His story focuses on Carlos Wieder, or Alberto Ruiz-Tagle as he was known at that time. The narrator and Alberto attend poetry workshops at the university, where the enigmatic Alberto easily grabs the attention of the women in the room, in particular, the Garmendia twins, Veronica and Angelica who have taken quite a liking to Alberto. No one has seen his poems, but his energy convinces people he will revolutionize Chilean poetry.

The Chilean coup d'état occurs in 1973, and the narrator is imprisoned in a concentration camp. During this time, the narrator sees a plane flown by Carlos Wieder sketch macabre poetry in the sky. When he is freed, fellow poet Bibiano informs him that they have been expelled, some of their poetry workshop classmates have gone missing, and the Garmendia sisters are dead. As a suspected terrorist, the narrator can’t find work in Chile and goes into exile in Europe.



It is revealed that Alberto is Carlos Weider, an aviator in the Chilean air force. After his sky poetry becomes famous, Weider presents a multimedia art show depicting the gruesome murders of students and dissidents against the revolution. His intensity and violence become too much even for the repressive Pinochet regime, so Carlos Weider disappears.

Wieder makes few public appearances and so the narrative shifts focus to those in the Chilean poetry community. Juan Stein, the director of the poetry workshop, flees after the coup d'état. He appears on Bibiano’s radar from time to time but eventually, she receives the news that he has died in a riot. When Bibiano tries to find his family, she discovers that his mother had died three years before and that Juan had actually died a year before.

Friend Diego Soto disappears from the scene as well. In 1974, he flies to France, marries a woman, and starts a family. Later, Neo-Nazis stab and kill him in a train station while he is helping a homeless woman.



The narrator’s focus returns to Carlos Wieder who continues to write violent and patriotic slogans and poetry in the sky but lives a life of secrecy. His work finds its way into both Chilean and international magazines, and his legend grows. According to the narrator, he lives in Valparaíso, finds refuge in a small farm in the south, and pens a strategic game under the pseudonym El Piloto. Even though Wieder is removed from the public view, the narrator becomes obsessed about learning the true nature of Wieder/Alberto.

Many years pass. In 1992, Wieder’s name appears on a judicial survey of torture and disappearances. In 1993, it is revealed that Wieder belonged to an independent operative group responsible for the killings of several students at the University of Concepción.

Twenty years after the coup d'état, detective Abel Romero finds the narrator in Barcelona and proposes to find Wieder, convinced that the man wrote several articles in neo-fascist publications. The narrator has been struggling to find work, so he agrees to lend his assistance. They pick up Wieder’s trail through a pornography company for which he had done photography. After a search, they find Wieder’s apartment in the province of Lloret. Confirming that the man they see is Wieder, the narrator collects a reward.



Bolaño’s Nazi Literature in the Americas is a fictional encyclopedia of imaginary fascist Pan-American authors. Distant Star is an expansion of the book’s longest and most personal chapter entitled “The Infamous Ramirez Hoffman,” but Bolaño changed some of the names, including Wieder’s for this novella.

Through these fictional writers, Bolaño explores the political and cultural environment of Chile during and after the Chilean coup d'état. His characters in Distant Star are mostly poets who are repressed, killed, or go into exile during the fascist regime of Augusto Pinochet. Bolaño was arrested during the revolution, which led to him having mixed feelings about his home country. In many ways, the narrator’s life throughout Distant Star mirrors that of Bolaño’s—exiled, searching for truth from political upheaval and the violent fates of those in the Chilean writing community.