‘Roberto Bolaño 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 Bolaño’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 history . . . spare but beautifully compacted’ The Times ‘His work is the crossroads where Márquez 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