Buenos Aires, Goyanarte, (1956). A novel based on the US-backed overthrow of the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954 -- a Cold War-related move against a left-leaning nationalist government that did much to set the stage for the next three decades of tensions between the U.S. and the various Central American republics. Asturias, for his open criticism of Yanqui interventionism, was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1966 -- the highest such honor conferred in the old U.S.S.R. The following year--in what may be construed as a battle for the hearts and minds of his constituency -- he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the West's highest international honor. A major novel by one of the most important writers of the postwar era, whose ability to integrate indigenous myths and social protest was a major accomplishment that helped shape the contemporary Latin American novel. Abrasions to front flyleaf and front cover; ink marks to three pages of text; some wear to top edge and creasing to spine; still a respectable copy in self-wraps. [#007850] $265