****The Obscene Bird of Night by Jose Donoso

• Chilean author (1924-1996)
• Originally published in Donoso's native language, Spanish, in 1970.
• Translated from the Spanish by Hardie St. Martin and Leonard Mades. 
• the first English edition was published in 1973.
• Donoso was part of the Latin American boom in the 1960's and 70's. Latin American novelists began working with non-linear time-lines, multiple perspectives and narratives, while incorporating existential pessimism and magical realism into their novels. These authors gave a new voice to South American literature and gained an international acceptance previously unknown in this part of the literary world. The Obscene Bird of Night is a supreme example of this movements key aesthetic and is considered Donoso's masterpiece.