Distant Star

Distant Star is a 1996 novella by Chilean writer Roberto Bolano about an aspiring artist, Carlos Wieder, who turns out to be an intelligence mole of the military after a military coup. To be precise, the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. Soon after, he starts doing incomprehensible art in the sky with his plane. The military at first is fascinated by his art, but after a while Wieder starts doing more risqué things which displeases the military government.

The story took off from a chapter from Bolaño's previous book Nazi Literature in the Americas, where he considered one of the stories too undervalued, so he decided to expand the story of the character in Distant Star.

Tropes used in Distant Star include:

• Author Avatar: Arturo Belano, the narrator of the story.
• Canon Welding: Arturo Belano appears also in other Bolaño stories, like The Savage Detectives.
• Genius Bonus: A recurrent feature of Bolaño.
• The Mole: Alberto Ruiz-Tagle aka Carlos Wieder.
• Private Detective: Abel Romero.
• Snuff Film: What Wieder was doing when he ran from the country.
• Those Wacky Neo-Nazis
• True Art Is Incomprehensible: Wieder’s later works of art.
• Twin Threesome Fantasy: Alberto Ruiz-Tagle only opens himself to the Garmendia twins, and at least one of them feels something for him. Then it takes a dark turn.