Considered already like a classic one, this novel composes a fresh overwhelming, as much of personages as of facts, in the
Brazil of end of century XIX. The characteristic agile pen of Vargas Llosa submerges in the life of farmers, canganceiros, politicians and the
military who are themselves dragged by the revolt of underprivileged more atypical of history. The sebastianistas rebels, calls thus by their support to the last monarch who governed Brazil before the Republic and that freed to them of the servitude, occupy earth in the greater large estate of the country, to the control of driven crazy and mystical illuminating. The government, feeling threatened by the old ones privileged of the monarchic regime, decides to appease the revolt with hardness. And thus, in a desert place and left of the hand of God, the military and pariahs they will be fought until death while republican and preservative others use to them to intrigue a con. A magnificent
novel in which the Peruvian writer hurga, once again, in the miseries and wonders that populate the human soul.