Márquez overtakes Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer
Author of One Hundred Years of Solitude tops list of those most translated into 10 languages this century ahead of Don Quixote creator
February 2023
Forensic study finds Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was poisoned
The toxin clostridium botulinum was in his body when he died in 1973, days after Chile’s military coup
January 2022
Nobel winner Pablo Neruda was almost denied prize because of odes to Stalin
As well as revealing the full shortlist, newly opened archives show that the 1971 judging panel were concerned the Chilean winner’s politics were ‘incompatible with the purpose of the prize’
March 2020
Unique Pablo Neruda archive – and slice of history – up for auction
Chilean poet’s letters, photos, rare books, postcards and artefacts represent ‘a huge part of the 20th century’
March 2019
The brilliance of Gabriela Mistral
Letters: She won the Nobel prize 26 years before Pablo Neruda, writes Heather Mayall, and was the reason for his love of literature
November 2018
Poet, hero, rapist – outrage over Chilean plan to rename airport after Neruda
Human rights activists argue that the honour is inappropriate for a man who described raping a maid in his memoir
October 2018
How we made
How we made Il Postino
‘At Massimo’s funeral, his film double walked behind the coffin in homage – and all the Neapolitans thought it was his ghost’
May 2018
Cities quiz
Quiz: can you guess the city from the literary quote?
Which city did Margaret Atwood describe as ‘New York without the garbage and muggings’? Which writer called one London area ‘ungentrified, ungentrifiable’? Pit your wits against our quiz
October 2017
Pablo Neruda: experts say official cause of death 'does not reflect reality'
Panel of 16 experts says that when the Nobel prize-winning poet died in 1973, there was no indication of the cancer that was supposed to have killed him
April 2017
Neruda review – frustratingly slow anti-biopic
Neruda review – poetry and politics clash in Pablo Larraín's historical caper
Poet's Pacific paradise: Pablo Neruda’s homes in Chile
Poets on film
Fast, loose and lyrical: Pablo Larraín's Neruda anti-biopic
May 2016
Public Streets by Public Books
A postcard from Yangon: Pansodan Road's famous second-hand book market
If you want to learn the history of Myanmar’s biggest city, head to the road where all the city’s books end up. Claudia Sofia Sosa strolls the same streets as Orwell and Neruda
January 2016
Nabokov, Neruda and Borges revealed as losers of 1965 Nobel prize
Nobel archives have been opened to reveal who was nominated for the 1965 prize for literature, a controversial year won by divisive victor Mikhail Sholokhov
November 2015
Chile admits Pablo Neruda might have been murdered by Pinochet regime
The government has acknowledged that the Nobel-prize winning poet may not have died from cancer but said experts were still examining the claims
October 2015
Nephew of Pablo Neruda claims Chilean poet was murdered
New bacterial evidence proves Neruda was murdered by the Pinochet regime says Rodolfo Reyes – however, other family members remain unconvinced
August 2015
Books blog
Pablo Neruda and translation's losses
It seems fair enough that some licence is granted when rendering poems in a different language, but dropping entire cantos is surely taking things too far
June 2015
Pablo Neruda poisoning doubts fuelled by new forensic tests
Claims have persisted that the communist poet was murdered in 1973 by agents of Chilean dictator Pinochet. Now a Spanish team examining exhumed bones has found troubling results
April 2015
World library
The best books on Chile: start your reading here
Our literary tour of Chile explores political repression under Pinochet through fact and fantasy, and magic realism’s merging of the two
