Roberto Bolaño Ávalos was one of the most influential Latin American writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He was born on April 28, 1953, in Santiago, Chile. His early years were marked by frequent relocations, a theme that would permeate his literary works. His father, a truck driver and amateur boxer, and his mother, a schoolteacher, moved the family to various towns in Chile before settling in Mexico City in 1968. Bolaño struggled academically and dropped out of high school, finding solace in literature. Influenced by writers such as Jorge Luis Borges (“The Aleph,” “The Library of Babel”), Julio Cortázar (“Axolotl,” “Continuity of Parks”), and Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, A Scanner Darkly), Bolaño immersed himself in reading and writing, developing a passion for poetry that would shape his early literary career.

The political upheaval in Latin America during the 1970s profoundly impacted Bolaño. In 1973, he returned to Chile to support Salvador Allende's socialist government. Soon after Bolaño’s arrival, General Augusto Pinochet led a military coup that overthrew Allende.