Battles in the Desert (40th Anniversary Edition)

This landmark novella-one of the central texts of Mexican literature, is eerily relevant to our current dark times-offers a child's-eye view of a society beset by dictators, disease, and natural disasters, set in 'the year of polio, foot-and-mouth disease, floods.' A middle-class boy grows up in a world of children aping adults (mock wars at recess pit Arabs against Jews), where a child's left to ponder 'how many evils and catastrophes we have yet to witness.' When Carlos laments the cruelty and corruption, the evils of a vicious class system, his older brother answers: 'So what, we are living up to our ears in shit anyway under Miguel Aleman's regime,' with 'the face of El Senor Presidente everywhere: incessant, private abuse.' Sound familiar? Woven into this coming-of-age saga is the terribly intense love Carlos cherishes for his friend s young mother, which has the effect of driving the general cruelties further under the reader s skin. The acclaimed translator Katherine Silver has greatly revised her original translation, enlivening afresh this remarkable work.