Novel, ALFAGUARA (October 2019)
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 20th century.
A gripping, revealing novel that directly addresses recent history, conceived with the resources of the best novelist.
See more: Mario Vargas Llosa