Monsieur Pain

<b>Paris, 1938. The Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo lies in hospital, hiccupping himself to death.</b><br> <br> When the doctors struggle to offer a diagnosis, his wife calls on an acquaintance of her friend Madame Reynaud, the mesmerist and reclusive bachelor Pierre Pain. Pain, in love and eager to impress, agrees to help. But on a night that 'smells of something strange', things soon go awry...<br> <br> A wonderfully oneiric novella that blends the finest of Edgar Allan Poe with Jorge Luis Borges and Bolano's truly astonishing alchemical gifts, <i>Monsieur Pain</i> is a gripping noir conspiracy as rich as it is strange.<br> <br> TRANSLATED BY CHRIS ANDREWS<br> <br> <b>'A surrealist nightmare, with overtones of Edgar Allan Poe and Raymond Chandler' <i>The Times</i></b><br> <br> <b>This marvellous little yarn is dark, mysterious and rich in surprises... If you have yet to enter the daringly kaleidoscopic labyrinth that is Roberto Bolano's imagination, this is a lively place to begin what will be quite an experience' <i>Irish Times</i></b>