After the Bombs

After the Bombs is a coming of age story that holds a mirror up to the modern history of Guatemala—a funhouse mirror of richly inventive and farcical black comedy which provides a better description of life in that country than any history book ever could. It opens with the bombing of Guatemala City in 1954 when the hero, Max, is a small child. In a swiftly moving narrative, Max journeys toward adulthood, searching for his identity, for his father, and along the way, for the real Guatemala and the possibility of a society founded on human decency, after the bombs.

Arturo Arias is professor of Latin American studies at the University of California, Merced. He has published four books in English: After the Bombs, Rattlesnake, The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy, and Taking their Word: Literature and the Signs of Central America. He is also widely known for his literary criticism.

Asa Zatz was born in Mexico and has translated nearly one hundred books. He lives in New York.