A reading list of unfinished novels

At the Independent, Gillian Orr came up with a brief reading list of unfinished novels with one title for the categories postmodernism, crime, modernism, autobiographical, and satire.

The crime novel on the list:

2666 by Roberto Bolaño

The Chilean had spent five years on the epic 2666 when he died in 2003. Having completed four-and-a-half of the five parts, his publisher went ahead and printed the unfinished manuscript. In 2008, Bolaño was posthumously awarded the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for 2666, which depicts the serial murders of women in Cuidad Juárez, Mexico.

Read about the other unfinished books on the list.

2666 was #1 in one tabulation of the critics' consensus book of the year for 2008.

Also see John Mullan's list of ten of the best unfinished literary works.

--Marshal Zeringue