Last Words on Earth

“Serena debuts with a stunning portrait of a Roberto Bolaño–esque writer who strikes literary gold while facing a terminal lung disease. . . . Funes’s remarkable concluding monologue, which features a nested story invoking Borges’s “The South,” recalls his surprising and bittersweet success with heartbreaking depth, as he ramps up his productivity in order to leave a legacy for his family. This is a wonder.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“More than a novel about Roberto Bolaño, Last Words on Earth is a story about passion, sacrifice, and the uncompromising pursuit of literature. The writer’s life, beautifully rendered, is told in prose that glimmers off the page. Serena’s novel conveys the universal—the end of youth, fading dreams—by focusing on the specific. Not simply for fans of the writer, but anyone touched by the power of books and writing.”—Mark Haber, author of Reinhardt's Garden

“Last Words on Earth is a wistful, admirative novel inspired by the life of Roberto Bolaño. . . . 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 façade, positing impermanence as the protagonist all must reckon with sooner or later.”—Jeremy Garber, Powell's Books

“[Atila] 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

“Due to the narrative strategy of different literary voices and the main character’s voice, the author gets an accomplished and moving end that turns this book into his best novel to date.”—David Pérez Vega, Revista Eñe

“This is a story told by three different points of view that moves and intrigues us and that places Javier Serena among the most challenging and talented young Spanish narrators of our country.”—Ben Clark, Nou Diari