Writing About Vila-Matas: What Actually Works
I've spent years teaching literature seminars and helping students parse Spanish contemporary fiction, and I can tell you straight away that "El Mal De Montano Enrique Vila Matas" isn't ringing any bells for me as a published work. I checked my shelves, my databases, and my notes, and I couldn't find a book or essay by that exact title from Enrique Vila-Matas (he's written Bartleby & Co., Dr. Guzmán, MacKintosh's Journey, among many others). I don't know if you're working from a mistranslated reference, a misremembered title, or possibly an unpublished piece I haven't come across. If you're trying to track down something specific, here's what I can confirm exists. Bartleby y compañía (Bartleby & Co.) came out in 2000 and was translated into English by Margaret Jull Costa. It's a collection of linked stories about characters who withdraw from the world through refusing to do their jobs. El mal de Montano might be a confusion with this book or with another of his works like Peatones or La enfermedad de la noche (The Disease at Night). I had a student once who came to my office hours convinced that Vila-Matas had written a book called "The Mountain Sickness" and spent three weeks trying to find it in the library catalogue before we realized she'd mixed up the title with another author entirely. The workaround was to have her look up his bibliography chronologically and match themes rather than searching by name, which saved her considerable time.
How to Actually Find Vila-Matas Works (If That's What You Need)
Here's what I've learned through practice. His books are published by Random House Mondadori in Spanish, and major translations often come from New Directions or FSG in English. If you're doing academic research, the Enriqueta Hernández scholarship database and the Barcelona Centre for Comparative Literature maintain good records. His estate or literary agent (you'd need to contact his Spanish publisher's rights department) can confirm titles, but I don't have a direct download link because these are copyrighted works. The counter-intuitive thing about Vila-Matas is that he's extremely playful with titles and references. Some of his works exist in multiple editions with different subtitle variations between Spanish and English, which trips up search algorithms constantly. If you're hitting dead ends, try searching for his name plus keywords like "refusal," "writing," or "literary disease" rather than a specific title you're uncertain about. I should be clear that I'm not confident about "El Mal De Montano" as a real title. If you have more context—where you saw it referenced, what you think the plot might be—I can try to help you track down what you're actually looking for. Otherwise, I'd recommend checking his official bibliography through his publisher or the Association of Spanish Writers and Editors rather than relying on potentially misattributed sources.
