u003cpu003eu003cbu003eThe true story of Guatemala’s political turmoil of the 1950s as only a master of fiction can tell itu003c/bu003eu003cbru003eu003cbru003eGuatemala, 1954. The military coup perpetrated by Carlos Castillo Armas and supported by the CIA topples the government of Jacobo Árbenz. Behind this violent act is a lie passed off as truth, which forever changes the development of Latin America: the accusation by the Eisenhower administration that Árbenz encouraged the spread of Soviet Communism in the Americas. u003ciu003eHarsh Timesu003c/iu003e is a story of international conspiracies and conflicting interests in the time of the Cold War, the echoes of which are still felt today.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eIn this thrilling novel, Mario Vargas Llosa fuses reality with two fictions: that of the narrator, who freely re-creates characters and situations, and the one designed by those who would control the politics and the economy of a continent by manipulating its history.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003ciu003eHarsh Timesu003c/iu003e is a gripping, revealing novel that directly confronts recent history. No one is better suited to tell this riveting story than Vargas Llosa, and there is no form better for it than his deeply textured fiction. Not since u003ciu003eThe Feast of the Goatu003c/iu003e, his classic novel of the downfall of Trujillo’s regime in the Dominican Republic, has Vargas Llosa combined politics, characters, and suspense so unforgettably.u003c/pu003e
