The Third Reich (novel)

2010 novel by Roberto Bolaño

The Third Reich

First edition (Spanish)

Author| Roberto Bolaño
Original title| El Tercer Reich
Translator| Natasha Wimmer
Language| Spanish
Publisher| Anagrama (Spanish)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (English)

Publication date

| 2010
Publication place| Chile

Published in English

| 2011
Media type| Print
Pages| 360
ISBN| 8433972057

The Third Reich (El Tercer Reich in Spanish) is a novel by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño written in 1989. It was discovered among his papers following his death and published in Spanish in 2010.[1] An English translation by Natasha Wimmer was published in November 2011.

The book belongs to both the "Hispanic Narratives"[2] collection and the "Compact" series, from the same publisher;[3] its title is another name sometimes used for Nazi Germany. The subject of Nazism is frequent in the author's bibliography, who had extensive historical knowledge about it.[4] He had previously dedicated novels related to this subject, such as Nazi literature in America and Distant Star.

## Plot

[edit]

The novel concerns Udo Berger, a German wargame champion, who returns with his girlfriend Ingeborg to the small town on the Costa Brava where he spent the summers of his childhood. When one of his friends disappears Udo invites a mysterious local to play a game of Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, a classic wargame published by Avalon Hill.[5]

## Serialized publication

[edit]

By special arrangement with the Bolaño estate, the Paris Review planned to publish the complete novel in four installments over the course of a year with illustrations by Leanne Shapton. The first installment appeared in the 2011 spring issue and the second in the 2011 summer issue. This is the first serialized novel published in the magazine since Harry Mathews’s The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium, forty years earlier.

## Critical reception

[edit]

The introduction to the first installment published in the Paris Review sees the novel as a precursor to Bolaño's later works:

> From the first sentence, The Third Reich bears his hallmarks. The irony, the atmosphere of erotic anxiety, the dream logic shading into nightmare, the feckless, unreliable narrator: all prefigure his later work. The young novelist must have been exhilarated, and possibly alarmed, to discover his talent so fully formed.[6]

Michael Schaub, reviewing the novel for NPR, stated that it was "compassionate, disturbing and deeply felt...in Udo Berger, Bolaño has created someone complex, sometimes frustrating and absolutely unforgettable."[7] Giles Harvey meanwhile, writing for The New Yorker, found the novel to be "moody and uneven" and claimed it "should join that shelf marked 'For Completists Only,' on which also sit Antwerp, Monsieur Pain, The Romantic Dogs, Between Parentheses, and The Skating Rink."[8]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "El Tercer Reich - Bolaño, Roberto - 978-84-339-7205-7". Editorial Anagrama. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
2. ^ "El Tercer Reich - Bolaño, Roberto - 978-84-339-7205-7". Editorial Anagrama. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
3. ^ "El Tercer Reich - Bolaño, Roberto - 978-84-339-7672-7". Editorial Anagrama. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
4. ^ "Bolaño salvaje | Cultura | elmundo.es". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
5. ^ Anthony Paletta, "War Games: On Roberto Bolaño’s The Third Reich", The Millions, Feb 10, 2012.
6. ^ "The Third Reich: Part I". the Paris Review No. 196. Vol. Spring 2011, no. 196\. Spring 2011.
7. ^ "Brutal And Perfect 'Third Reich': Bolano's Final Gift". NPR. 17 November 2011.
8. ^ In the Labyrinth: A User's Guide to Bolaño by Giles Harvey "The Book Bench", The New Yorker Website, 19 January 2012.

## External links

[edit]

* "Lost Roberto Bolaño novel to be serialised this spring". The Guardian. 14 February 2011.

* v
* t
* e

Works by Roberto Bolaño

Novels|

* The Skating Rink
* Nazi Literature in the Americas
* Distant Star
* The Savage Detectives
* Amulet
* Monsieur Pain
* By Night in Chile
* Antwerp
* A Little Lumpen Novelita
* 2666
* The Third Reich
* Woes of the True Policeman
* The Spirit of Science Fiction

Story collections|

* Last Evenings on Earth
* The Return
* The Insufferable Gaucho
* The Secret of Evil
* Cowboy Graves

Poetry collections|

* The Romantic Dogs
* Tres
* The Unknown University

Characters|

* Benno von Archimboldi
* Arturo Belano

Film adaptations|

* Il Futuro

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