Sergio Ramirez, writer and former civilian leader in the Sandinista revolutionary government from 1985-1990, has now won the Cervantes Prize, the highest literary award in the Hispanic world. He wrote his great panoramic novel from exile, and this was the first Nicaraguan novel ever translated into English. The long years of dictatorship in Nicaragua are dramatically recreated as cabaret singers, activists, policemen, prostitutes, beauty queens and would-be presidents haunt this sophisticated, lyrical and timeless epic of resistance and retribution. "One of the most talented Central American writers of his generation" NEW YORK TIMES Subtle and convincing..., the book never loses its linguistic power or elegiac emotion." LOS ANGELES TIMES Rich in vivid and sensuous details of everyday life...out of which come potent emblems" TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT