Perder teorías

(France, Christian Bourgois); (Portugal, Teodolito); (UK, The White Review)

«Vila-Matas at his best» El Cultural

«Exciting and fun» Frank Nouchi, Le Monde

«A revealing look» Minh Tran Huy, Le Magazine Littéraire

«Always drifting, chaotic, wild and funny, Vila-Matas makes of this little red book his defense of the importance of creating explanatory theories, even if it is to leave them behind at the earliest opportunity.» José Mario Silva, Atual

«If we like so much his texts it is because they contain the best of world literature… Vila-Matas is a brilliant impostor, like the best artists.» Nelly Kaprièlian, Les Inrockuptibles

(Losing theories) Invited to Lyon to an international symposium on the novel, a double of the writer Vila-Matas is left by a taxi at his hotel without anyone to welcome him. In the solitude of his room, he draws up a general theory of the novel, focusing particularly on the five elements that must be included for a text to belong to the new century—meanwhile, the organization that invited him to Lyon never contacts him. Back in Barcelona, he feels as if he has discovered the futility of all essays, travel and perhaps even the futility of life itself, so that it would destory his theory, but it might work for someone to write Dublinesca.

(Spain, Seix Barral)