The book is divided into sixteen short chapters, told in first person by the protagonist Bianca, who recalls her childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.

Il Futuro, a 2013 film directed by Alicia Scherson and starring Manuela Martelli and Rutger Hauer, was based on this novel.

[citation needed] In a starred review, Publishers Weekly's Gabe Habash referred to A Little Lumpen Novelita as "a glittering gem, as maddening and haunting as you'd expect from Bolaño", noting that "even though [it] is not Bolaño's best book, it's still one of the best books of the year."

Alongside a linear plot, the novel "bends and twists, refusing to be pinned down", which Habash describes as "the book's real draw".

[1] Kirkus Reviews called A Little Lumpen Novelita "a concise but welcome addition to a major writer's canon", highlighting how "its watertight prose (via Wimmer's translation) and themes of criminality and the treatment of women make it of a piece with the writer's grander works".