Great Translations: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

Photo of Mexico City in the 1970s from time.com

In this quasi-autobiographical story, a group of intense young poets, men and women, knock around Mexico City. Their lives revolve around poetry: reading it, writing poems, trying to get their poems published in fly-by-night literary magazines that only they read. The intensity of their love for poetry is disarming.

The Setting: Mexico City in the 1970s. The young people exist in odd…