61 pages 2 hours read

Roberto Bolano

2666

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2004

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Themes

Hidden Evil Within Society

2666 explores a hidden evil that lurks within society at the end of the 20th century in the form of femicide in Santa Teresa, Mexico. The novel is divided into five parts, each focusing on a different set of characters at different points in time. There is an overlap between the characters and their interests, but they are unified through their draw to the city of Santa Teresa, Mexico, which is swept up in a spree of murders. Hundreds of women are killed by men, and their bodies are found in the desert. There is no real explanation for Santa Teresa’s femicide epidemic. The different parts of the novel interact and engage with these murders and the hidden evil they represent, but they do not explain, diagnose, or halt the violence. For most people in Santa Teresa, the murders have become a part of life. The murders cannot be understood in any meaningful sense, so people have accepted their existence as a fundamental aspect of their lived reality. The hidden evil manifests as murder against women and, since this evil is obfuscated and impossible to understand, the murders are seemingly unstoppable, creating an