A Lannan translation selection

Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, this book details the author's attempts to obtain recognition as a conscientious objector from the Selective Service System. After being unjustly denied conscientious objector status, the author refused to enter the military, was convicted of violating federal law, left the country and lived in exile for six years.

"As he did in Castigo divino (1988), the great Nicaraguan novelist is fascinatingly concerned with creating a cultural context as well as recovering the intellectual templates of Central American mentalities. In 1907, when Darío purportedly writes 'Margarita, the sea is beautiful' on a little girl's fan, and 1956, where a gathering of inexperienced, romantic intellectuals also plots to kill Anastasio Somoza, are the poles of this prize-winning novel. In between, Ramírez subtly weaves a national master narrative that, by emphasizing the humanity rather than the myths that have sustained it, shows readers the hidden side of public figures. He manages to give a modernista, musical tinge to his language, thereby doubling the readers' attempts at deciphering its message. Fifteen years in the making, Margarita, está linda la mar is a masterpiece"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

After a meeting with his only neighbor, sixty-seven-year-old Trond is forced to reflect upon a long-ago incident that marks the beginning of a series of losses for Trond and his childhood friend, Jon.