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English
Open Letter
09 July 2025
From the author ofLast Words on Earth-an reimagining of Roberto Bolao's life-comes a book articulating the final years of Aliocha Coll, one of Spain's most innovative writers as he completes his masterpiece,Attila(also available from Open Letter Books).

Living alone in Paris, estranged from his family, suffering from heartbreak and possibly madness, Alioscha Coll works with saintly intensity on what will be his final manuscript:

Attila. Once the final words have been written, he vows to end his life, convinced that his existence will lose all purpose.

Told through the viewpoint of a literary critic and journalist,Attilaexpands Javier Serena's investigation into artists who remained dedicated to their art, to their aesthetic vision in the face of complete dismissal by the publishing world and reading public. In the case ofLast Words on Earth and Ricardo Funes (the stand in for Bolao in that novel), things work out and he briefly becomes the star of the literary world-could the same happen for Alioscha Coll?
By:  
Translated by:  
Imprint:   Open Letter
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 215mm,  Width: 139mm, 
ISBN:   9781960385352
ISBN 10:   1960385356
Pages:   150
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Javier Serenawas born in Pamplona, Spain in 1982. He has publishedLas torres de El Carpio,La estacin balda,Last Words on Earth, andAttila. He has stayed at writers residences with the Fundacin Antonio Gala (Crdoba, Spain) and Les Rcollets (Paris, France). Katie Whittemoretranslates from the Spanish. Her translations include novels by Sara Mesa, Javier Serena, Aroa Moreno Durn, Lara Moreno, Nuria Labari, Katixa Agirre, Jon Bilbao, Juan Gmez Brcena, Almudena Snchez, Aliocha Coll, and Pilar Adn. She received an NEA Translation Fellowship in 2022 for Lara Moreno'sIn Case We Lose Power, and has been a finalist for the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Prize and the Queen Sofa Spanish Institute Translation Prize, and longlisted for the National Translation Award.

Reviews for Attila

"""Attila is a book that opens the doors to a kind of narrative very unusual in our country. A novel about passion and negativity (so opposed at first sight), but very stimulating."" --Enrique Vila-Matas ""Spanish writer Serena debuts with a stunning portrait of a Roberto Bola�o-esque writer who strikes literary gold while facing a terminal lung disease. . . . This is a wonder."" --Publishers Weekly, starred review ""Serena channels his observations about creativity into elegant sentences (via Whittemore's translation) that evoke the storm-clouded intensity of Bola�o's prose in books like 2666. . . . A meditative tribute to perseverance and literary integrity."" --Kirkus Reviews ""Last Words on Earth is a wistful, admirative novel inspired by the life of Roberto Bola�o. . . . Serena's novel, at times somber, at others exuberant, captures well the ambiguities, the inconsistencies, and the dualities of all lives, in a way that's simultaneously both a lauding and a lament. Last Words on Earth slips behind the authorial fa�ade, positing impermanence as the protagonist all must reckon with sooner or later."" --Jeremy Garber, Powell's Books"


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