The article examines intertextual relations between the work of the critically acclaimed Chilean author Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) and Franz Kafka (1883–1924), not only one of the most important but also most influential prose writers of the 20th century. The comparison focuses on common aesthetic features, poetological concepts as well as on explicit references of Bolaño on Kafka and his work. Finally, the study analyses Bolaño’s short story ‚El policía de las ratas‘ and its parallels to Kafka’s last story ‚Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse‘. By means of their animal protagonists, both texts do not only reflect the role of the artist in society but the future of a community that refuses to provide a place for art to live.