Description

Dropped from the Olympic figure skating team, Nuria Marti’s fate pivots her into a world of corruption, jealousy – and revenge.

Cushioning her fall from grace, a besotted admirer builds a secret ice rink for her in the ruins of an old masion on the outskirts of their seaside town. What he doesn’t tell her is he paid for it using public funds. Such deceit is not without repercussions, and the skating rink soon becomes a crime scene.

Narrated by a corrupt and pompous civil servant, a beleaguered romantic poet, and a duplicitous civil servant, The Skating Rink is a darkly atmospheric tale of murder and its motives.

TRANSLATED BY CHRIS ANDREWS

‘A work of intense and unrealized longing’ The New York Times

‘Bolano makes you feel changed for having read him; he adjusts your angle of view on the world’ Guardian

Publisher Review

The Skating Rink…like much of what [Bolano] wrote, leaves many new novels looking pretty bland. * The Observer * This Catalan drama sizzles with unrequited love and murderous ambition. * The Independent * [A] short, exquisite novel * The New York Times Book Review * A sizzling cocktail of sex, death and obsession set on the Costa Brava. * The Times * Elegant, elusive and amusing * Daily Telegraph *