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A popular candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, one of the most important writers in the contemporary Spanish literary world, the famous work of Enrique Vila-Matas, the "smiling general"; a journey about "collapse and recovery", in which the boundaries between reality and fiction are blurred to the point of being unrecognizable, and the overall appearance of contemporary avant-garde art emerges vividly on the page; this book originates from the author's real experience. [About the author] Enrique Villa-Matas (1948-) is one of the most important writers in the contemporary Spanish literary world and one of the contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature. So far, there are more than 40 works and have been translated into more than 30 languages. [Introduction] One morning, an unexpected phone call broke the daily life of a Barcelona writer. In this strange call, a female voice invites the writer to the German city of Kassel to attend the world's avant-garde art event: Documenta. According to the requirements of the curator, the writer needs to become a "writer-in-residence" and stay in a Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of Kassel, chatting and communicating with people every day, and writing in front of everyone's eyes. As time went by, Kassel became more and more like a manor full of wonders in the writer's mind, while he himself was like an idler with nothing to do, a tireless visitor, lingering among various avant-garde art exhibits.