
Doctor Pasavento + Bastian Schneider
Anagrama, 2005; PRH/DeBolsillo 2016 ; Seix Barral, 2017
Translations
(Arabic, Almada, 2019); (Brazil, Cosac Naify, 2009); (France, Bourgois / Pocket, Titres); (Germany, Nagel & Kimche, 2007); (Greece, Kastaniotis); (Italy, Feltrinelli, 2008); (Portugal, Teorema, 2007)
Awards
-Fundación Lara Award 2006
-Foundation José Manuel Lara Prize for the novel with best reception by the specialized press.
-Real Academia Española Award
-Premio Letterario Internazionale Mondello – Città di Palermo, 2009
Press
«An essential work in Vilas-Matas’ back catalogue; an entertaining and tragic novel.» Qué Leer
«An ingenious flight over almost everything that is written in Spain.» J.M. Pozuelo Yvancos, ABC
«Essential in the Spanish novel today. This novel is a powerful antibody against ordinariness.» Domingo Ródenas de Moya, El Periódico
«A superior novel. It sets him far and above the many earthlings who are incapable of noticing the breath of the divine.» J.A. Masoliver Ródenas, La Vanguardia
«The reading of this novel is an enormously fascinating experience.» Alain Nicolas, L’Humanité
«Magnificent. We recommend that lovers of literature not only read this book, but also have it at hand for a long time.» Patrick Kéchichian, Le Monde
«He has positioned himself as the best Spanish writer of the decade.» Nelly Kaprièlian, Chronic’art
Synopsis
The moral hero of the writer and Doctor Pasavento is Robert Walser, in whom he admires the desire to go through life unnoticed, the life of beautiful unhappiness that he lived and the extreme repugnance he felt for the power and the greatness of literature. To follow the destiny of this writer is, for Pasavento, to withdraw from the world, as seen in his handwriting that is becoming increasingly microscopic and leads him to replace his pen with a pencil because he feels that this is closer to complete disappearance, from the eclipse. “I don’t write to be photographed”, he sometimes says. He wants to set himself apart and, one day, disappear. He thinks that the case will be investigated, like that of Agatha Christie when the whole of England searched for her for eleven days and she was finally found. But nobody comes looking for Doctor Pasavento and this simple truth gradually dawns on him: nobody is thinking about him. We therefore see him resort to the strategy of resignation: the extreme act with which some writers ensure the only way of capturing the sparkle of a full and inexpressable life that is not suffocated by power. We see him renounce himself, his greatness and, of course, his dignity, to the point where he even believes that the story of the disappearance of the subject in the East is incarnated by him alone. “What I want is to continue to exist without being bothered”, says Doctor Pasavento, and then, almost in contradiction, he asks if he will be able to live if nobody even remotely remembers that he exists. He travels to the Swiss mental hospital where Walser lived for many years removed from the world and he gets close to the practice of a very peculiar art, and one which his most admired writer was an absolute master: the art of turning into nothing. Doctor Pasavento, Enrique Vila-Matas, after Bartleby y compañía, El mal de Montano y París no se acaba nunca, continues along the upward path that has undoubtedly confirmed him as being on the the greatest writers of our times.
- Cabinet d’amateur, an oblique novel
- Esta bruma insensata
- Impón tu suerte
- Mac y su contratiempo
- Marienbad eléctrico
- Bartleby y compañía
- Dietario Voluble
- Suicidios ejemplares
- Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil
- Kassel no invita a la lógica
- París no se acaba nunca
- Niña
- Fuera de aquí
- Extraña forma de vida
- El mal de Montano
- Aire de Dylan
- Hijos sin hijos
- Una vida absolutamente maravillosa. Ensayos selectos
- El viajero más lento. El arte de no terminar nada
- Chet Baker piensa en su arte. Relatos selectos
- En un lugar solitario. Narrativa 1973-1984
- Lejos de Veracruz
- Dublinesca
- Perder teorías
- Ella era Hemingway / No soy Auster
- El viento ligero en Parma
- Exploradores del abismo
- Desde la ciudad nerviosa
- El viaje vertical
- Para acabar con los números redondos
- Recuerdos inventados
- Una casa para siempre
- Impostura
- La asesina ilustrada
MB Authors Fiction
- Pablo ARANDA
- Juan Luis ARSUAGA
- Joan BARRIL
- Nuria BARRIOS
- Felipe BENÍTEZ REYES
- Max BESORA
- Joan-Daniel BEZSONOFF
- Juan BONILLA
- Emilio BUESO
- Leonardo CANO
- Martín CASARIEGO
- Nicolás CASARIEGO
- Paula CIFUENTES
- Juan CUADRA
- Cristina FALLARÁS
- Laura FERRERO
- Josep Maria FONALLERAS
- Albert FORNS CANAL
- Ignacio GARCÍA-VALIÑO
- José A. GARRIGA VELA
- Albert GASSULL
- David B. GIL
- Marcos GIRALT TORRENTE
- Ismael GRASA
- Javier GUTIÉRREZ
- Najat El HACHMI
- Alicia KOPF
- Use LAHOZ
- Lucía LIJTMAER
- Ignacio MARTÍNEZ DE PISóN
- Ana MERINO
- Luna MIGUEL
- Miquel OBIOLS
- Bruno ORO
- Miqui OTERO
- Vicenç PAGÈS JORDÀ
- Enric PARDO
- Concepción PEREA
- Juan Manuel DE PRADA
- Jordi PUNTÍ
- Llucia RAMIS
- Antonio J. RODRÍGUEZ
- Félix ROMEO
- Gemma RUIZ
- Màrius SERRA
- Aránzazu SERRANO LORENZO
- Ramon SOLSONA
- David TRUEBA
- Juan VICO
- Enrique VILA-MATAS
- Rolando VILLAZÓN
- Pedro ZARRALUKI