'Now I am a mother and a married woman, but not long ago I led a life of crime.'

We know Bianca didn't succumb to that life, but what did happen after she and her brother suddenly lost their parents in a car crash? Who were the two strange men who moved into the flat that the siblings now occupied? What sort of relationship developed between the four of them? What plan did they hatch together?

One of Roberto Bolaño's shortest novels – "novelita" – the story lives on the edge of impending cataclysm. Bianca and her brother look certain to head into a path from which there is no return. The introduction of a blind man to the story makes everything even more uncertain.

A little book that tells a rich story, leaving the reader to imagine what comes after the ending – which does not really end the narrative – A Little Lumpen Novelita also serves as a wonderful introduction to the work of an author whose longer novels might make for a more daunting entry point.