Mario Vargas Llosa

A great political novel on a par with The Feast of the Goat.

Guatemala, 1950s. In spite of his efforts to establish a solid, lasting democracy, President Jacobo Árbenz is falsely accused by the United States’ propaganda machine of being a communist and a Soviet link in Latin America. Behind his back, a coup d’état is being planned, involving the Eisenhower Administration, the CIA, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, Leónidas Trujillo (nicknamed The Goat), and a mediocre general, Carlos Castillo Armas, designated as the puppet who will take command of the country.

Political espionage, contract killings, betrayals, and a femme fatale known as Miss Guatemala: the Central American underworld is brimming with characters worthy of a fast-paced thriller. They are the living history of a country and a decade when Guatemala embodied the impossible dream of modernisation that marked the history of much of Latin America in the 20^th century.

A gripping, revealing novel that directly addresses recent history, conceived with the resources of the best novelist.

“Not only does Vargas Llosa bring back the tradition of the dictator novel, rooted in Valle-Inclán’s esperpentic Tyrant Banderas, but he returns to what many regard as his best period as a writer, when he produced complex, broadly developed novels. This began with The Time of the Hero and ended with The War of the End of the World.” J. A. Masoliver Ródenas, La Vanguardia (on The Feast of the Goat)

 "La maestría del autor es mayor, si cabe, que en La Fiesta del Chivo y la novela es un prodigioso mecanismo que invita al lector a dejarse llevar entre la suspensión y el destino, tal como la historia nos lleva a todos, hacedores, testigos o víctimas.  [...] Vargas Llosa construye una novela hermosa y turbadora que trata de la maldad y quisiera conjurarla." José-Carlos Mainer, Babelia, El País

“Tiempos recios devuelve a un narrador con brío y a un intelectual ejemplarmente comprometido con la gran causa humana de la justicia y la libertad.” Santos Sanz Villanueva, El Cultural, El Mundo

“Es tanta la realidad que maneja Vargas Llosa, que poco importa que para llegar a subrayarla él se sirva de la ficción.” Juan Cruz, Babelia, El País