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Nazi Literature in the Americaswas the first of Roberto Bolaos books to reach a wide public. When it was published by Seix Barral in 1996, critics in Spain were quick to recognize the arrival of an important new talent. The book presents itself as a biographical dictionary of American writers who flirted with or espoused extreme right-wing ideologies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is a tour de force of black humor and imaginary erudition.Nazi Literature in the Americasis composed of short biographies, including descriptions of the writers works, plus an epilogue (for Monsters), which includes even briefer biographies of persons mentioned in passing. All of the writers are imaginary, although they are all carefully and credibly situated in real literary worlds. Ernesto Prez Masn, for example, in the sample included here, is an imaginary member of the real Orgenes group in Cuba, and his farcical clashes with Jos Lezama Lima recall stories about the spats between Lezama Lima and Virgilio Piera, as recounted in Guillermo Cabrera InfantesMea Cuba. The origins of the imaginary writers are diverse. Authors from twelve different countries are included. The countries with the most representatives are Argentina (8) and the USA (7).