The Skating Rink

This article is about the novel. For the opera adapted from it, see The Skating Rink (opera). For other uses, see Skating rink.

The Skating Rink

First edition (Spanish)
Author	Roberto Bolaño
Original title	La Pista de Hielo
Translator	Chris Andrews
Country	Chile
Language	Spanish
Publisher	Alcala de Henares (Spanish) New Directions (English)
Publication date	1993
Published in English	2009
Media type	Print (Cloth)
Pages	198
ISBN	8487153526

The Skating Rink (La Pista de Hielo in Spanish) is a novel by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. A translation from the Spanish by Chris Andrews was published by New Directions in August, 2009.

David Sawer adapted it as an opera by the same name, first performed in July 2018.

Summary

Set in the seaside town of Z, on the Costa Brava, north of Barcelona, The Skating Rink is told by three male narrators (one Mexican, one Chilean, and one Spaniard), revolving around a beautiful figure-skating champion, Nuria Martí. When she is suddenly dropped from the Olympic team, a pompous but besotted civil servant secretly builds a skating rink in a local ruin of a mansion, using public funds. But Nuria has affairs, provokes jealousy, and the skating rink becomes a crime scene.