Fiction Podcast: Francisco Goldman Reads Roberto Bolano: The New Yorker On this month's fiction podcast, Francisco Goldman reads Roberto Bolaño's short story "Clara," which first appeared in The New Yorker in 2008. In contrast to the sprawling stories and polyphonic narratives for which Bolaño is best known, "Clara" is one woman's story, told by a man who first loves her when he's young and never fully lets go. He shares his memories of Clara in what Goldman calls "a late-night insomniac reminiscence," a breathless stream of details that, he admits, say more about him than about her: So. Clara got married. And the husband, Clara's dear husband, surprised everyone, even her. After one or two years, I'm not sure, exactly - Clara told me, but I've forgotten - they split up. It wasn't an amicable separation. The guy shouted, Clara shouted, she slapped him, he responded with a punch that dislocated her jaw. Sometimes, when I'm alone and can't get to sleep but don't feel up to switching on the light, I think of Clara, who came in second in that beauty contest, with her jaw hanging loose, unable to get it back in place on her own, driving to the nearest hospital with one hand on the wheel and the other supporting her jawbone. I'd like to find it funny, but I can't. Despite its love-story quality, Goldman says that the themes of painful nostalgia and desperation in "Clara" are consistent with Bolaño's other work. "There's a kind of morbid quality to the story which is very Bolaño," he says, "You can sort of feel that it's death-haunted from the first page." Goldman also discusses Jorge Luis Borges, the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, and what Bolaño meant to his own wife, Aura, whose tragic death in 2007 was the basis for Goldman's novel "Say Her Name." The book was excerpted in the magazine in 2011. You can hear Goldman's reading of "Clara," and his discussion with Deborah Treisman, by listening above or by downloading the podcast for free from iTunes. Photograph by Just Loomis.