Mr. President

Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias's masterpiece of authoritarian excess-about an egomaniacal dictator and his schemes to dispose of a political adversary-in the first new English translation in nearly sixty years, and featuring a foreword by Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa A Penguin Classic The story of a dictator scheming against a rival in an unnamed Latin American country usually identified as Guatemala, Mr. President was banned for many years in Guatemala and has been acclaimed for portraying both a totalitarian government and its damaging psychological effects. Drawing from his experiences as a journalist writing under repressive conditions, Miguel Ángel Asturias employs such literary devices as satire to convey the government's transgressions and surrealistic dream sequences to demonstrate the police state's impact on the individual psyche. His stance against all forms of injustice in Guatemala caused critics to view the author as a compassionate spokesperson for the oppressed. "My work," Asturias promised when he accepted the Nobel Prize, "will continue to reflect the voice of the people, gathering their myths and popular beliefs and at the same time seeking to give birth to a universal consciousness of Latin American problems." Story Locale: Guatemala

Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967. A poet, diplomat, and novelist from Guatemala, he studied law in his home country before continuing his studies in Paris, where he encountered the surrealist writings that would deeply influence his work. In addition to being a prolific writer, he worked as a newspaper correspondent in western Europe and later as an ambassador for Guatemala in Europe and Latin America. He wrote numerous works of fiction, poetry, drama, and essays, including the novels Mr. President and Men of Maize.

David Unger (translator) has received Guatemala's Miguel Ángel Asturias National Literature Prize for Lifetime Achievement. He is the author of several novels, including The Mastermind, The Price of Escape, and Life in the Damn Tropics, and has translated more than a dozen books from Spanish into English. His short stories and essays have been published in The Paris Review, Guernica, and Bomb. Born in Guatemala, Unger now lives in Brooklyn.

Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-2025; foreword) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010. He also won the Spanish-speaking world's most distinguished literary honor, the Cervantes Prize, as well as the Jerusalem Prize and many other literary awards. His many novels include The Feast of the Goat, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The War of the End of the World, The Bad Girl, Conversation in the Cathedral, and Harsh Times.

Gerald Martin (introduction) is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages at the University of Pittsburgh. Among his publications are Gabriel García Márquez: A Life and a translation and critical edition of Miguel Ángel Asturias's Men of Maize. Martin lives in England.