From one of Guatemala's finest young writers, these twenty-six
stories--at once brutal and intensely lyrical--are peopled with
sorcerers, ghosts, and assassins.
Springing from myth and beliefs indigenous to Central America and North
America, where their action occurs, Rey Rosa's tales give the sense of
being dreamed. At the same time they can be read as metaphors for the
terror and oppression of years of warfare.
Rodrigo Rey Rosa has based many of his writings and stories on
legends and myths that are indigenous to Latin American as well as North
Africa. A number of Rey Rosa's works have been translated into English,
including; The Path Doubles Back (by Paul Bowles), Dust on her
Tongue, "The Pelcari Project", The Beggar's Knife, The African
Shore, and Severina. Along with his longer writings, he has also
written a number of short stories that have been printed in
college-level text books, such as "Worlds of Fiction, Second Edition" by
Roberta Rubenstein and Charles R. Larson. A few of these short stories
include The Proof, and The Good Cripple. Many of Rey Rosa's works
have been translated into seven languages. In the early 1980s, Rey Rosa
went to Morocco and became a literary protege of American expatriate
writer Paul Bowles, who later translated several of Rey Rosa's works
into English. When Bowles died in 1999, Rey Rosa became an executor of
his literary estate.
