`Roberto Bolano redefined the form of the novel in his masterpiece 2666; with the hallucinatory narrative of Amulet, he reimagines what literature can become` New Statesman Auxilio Lacouture is trapped. For twelve days she hides alone in a lavatory on the fourth floor of the university. Staring at the floor, she begins a heartfelt and feverish tale: she is the Mother of Mexican poetry. This highly charged first-person semi-hallucinatory novel is a potent stream of consciousness through which the poets of Mexico rage and swirl. Filled with wild, dark literary prophecies, heroic poets, mad poets, artists `choked by the brilliance of youth`, Auxilio`s passionate narration both heart-breaking and lyrical is suffused with the essence of Bolano`s art. `A short, original, engaged and engaging novel; a good introduction to the longer works of this writer.` Times Literary Supplement `Encapsulates the violence and tragedy of recent Latin American spare but beautifully compacted` The Times `His work is the crossroads where Marquez meets Burroughs and Borges meets Mailer, resulting in a riotous dust-up` John Banville, Guardian `A curtain-raising taster to the epic of his landmark works` Boyd Tonkin, Independent.