The Skating Rink (New Directions Paperbook)

Price: $14.95 - $12.94
(as of Jul 20, 2025 07:38:19 UTC – Details)

A phenomenally unusual three-way murder mystery.

With a murder at its heart, Roberto Bolaño’s The Skating Rink is, among other things, a crime novel. Murder seems to have exerted a fascination for the endlessly talented Bolaño, who in his last interview, according to The Observer, “declared, in all apparent seriousness, that what he would most like to have been was a homicide detective.”
Set in the seaside town of Z, north of Barcelona, The Skating Rink is told in short, suspenseful chapters by three male narrators, and revolves around a beautiful figure skating champion, Nuria Martí. A ruined mansion, knife-wielding women, political corruption, sex, and jealousy all appear in this atmospheric chronicle of a single summer season in a seaside town, with its vacationers, businessmen, immigrants, bureaucrats, social workers, and drifters.
Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 28, 2011
Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0811218686
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811218689
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches