Men of Maize

(Paperback)

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Deep in the mountain forests of Guatemala, a community of Indigenous Mayans-the "men of maize"-serves as stewards to sacred corn crops. When profiteering outsiders encroach on their territory and threaten to abuse the fertile land, they enter a bloody struggle to protect their way of life. Blurring the lines between history and mythology, Nobel Prize winner Miguel ngel Asturias's lush, dream-like work offers a prescient warning against the loss of ancestral wisdom and the environmental destruction set in motion by colonial oppression and capitalist greed. A novel whose time has come- the Nobel Prize-winning author of Mr. President's visionary epic of ecological devastation, capitalist exploitation, and Indigenous wisdom, now available again for its 75th anniversary with a new introduction and with a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winner Hector Tobar A Penguin Classic Deep in the mountain forests of Guatemala, a community of Indigenous Mayans-the "men of maize"-serves as stewards to sacred corn crops. When profiteering outsiders encroach on their territory and threaten to abuse the fertile land, they enter a bloody struggle to protect their way of life. Blurring the lines between history and mythology, Nobel Prize winner Miguel ngel Asturias's lush, dream-like work offers a prescient warning against the loss of ancestral wisdom and the environmental destruction set in motion by colonial oppression and capitalist greed.

Reviews

I find it difficult to imagine similar depth, whether by or about the Indigenous people, anywhere in Latin American literature. . . .The translation . . . is an achievement unto itself. Eduardo Galeano, Los Angeles Times

Men of Maize is Asturiass Mayan masterpiece, his Indigenous Ulysses, a deep dive into the forces that made and kept the Maya a subservient caste, and the perpetual resistance that kept Guatemalas many Mayan cultures alive and resilient. Hctor Tobar, from the Foreword

Men of Maize may one day be considered the most important book written in Central America since the so-called Maya Bible or Maya Genesis, the Popol Vuh. . . . [It] is the most ambitious novel ever written about the mysterious, fascinating, and tragic country that . . . became known as Guatemala. . . . Its contexts are excitingly diverse and its subtexts extraordinarily profound. . . . It has a tragic relevance for all of us that is even more immediate now than when it was written. . . . [It] is a profound meditation on the history of Guatemala . . . [and] a symbolic history of life on this planet, the whole vast world and universe viewed from the cruel and beautiful case study that was Guatemala. . . . There are few novels from which more can be learned. Gerald Martin, from the Introduction

Author Bio

Miguel ngel 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. Gerald Martin (translator/introduction) is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages at the University of Pittsburgh. Among his publications are Gabriel Garcia Marquez- A Life and Journeys Through the Labyrinth- Latin American Fiction in the Twentieth Century. Martin lives in England. Hector Tobar (foreword) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a novelist, and a professor at the University of California, Irvine. His books include Our Migrant Souls, the New York Times bestseller Deep Down Dark, and The Barbarian Nurseries. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, Tobar is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his family.