Considered a masterpiece when it was first published in 1976, this novel ushered in the new Guatemalan novel, a genre that was political, subversive, and full of youthful anger. Written in a
highly original colloquial style, this book shoved the gun-toting language of the Marxist guerrilla—loaded with profanity and insolence—straight into the faces of its amazed readers. The
story itself follows the fortunes of a group of young left-wing combatants embroiled in the country's bloody civil war—and shockingly reveals how a generation's revolutionary zeal was colored
by a heady mix of sex, drugs, and political ambition.
