Harsh Times

"Harsh Times, which covers the same years as The Feast of the Goat, is not so much a sequel to the earlier book as an expansion of it, the new novel interwoven with the previous one, filling in gaps and deepening our understanding . . . Vargas Llosa has constructed a compelling and propulsive literary thriller, deeply informed by his experience as a public intellectual and a practicing politician."—Hari Kunzru, The New York Times Book Review

"As always with Vargas Llosa . . . the political is rendered personal through a cast of vivid, grotesque characters and through a narrative structure that is as complex and labyrinthine as the world it describes . . . It’s not just the subject matter that thrills, though; this is a novel that impresses at sentence level, too . . . [A] wildly enjoyable book; the 85-year-old Vargas Llosa is as sharp and mordantly funny as ever."—Alex Preston, Financial Times

"From Paul Revere’s ride to the storming of the Bastille to last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, the spirit of revolution has stirred the hearts of those yearning for justice—and yet freedom never comes for free, as the Nobel laureate wrenchingly observes in his intricately plotted new novel . . . Harsh Times explores evergreen themes—skirmishes between the powerful and powerless, how war erodes our humanity—with gallows humor."—Hamilton Cain, Oprah Daily

"[A] vivid story centered on the U.S.-backed 1954 coup in Guatemala . . . History here gets a compelling human face through an artist’s dramatic brilliance.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Classic Vargas Llosa . . . An unsettling reminder of the complicated relationship between storytelling and politics."—Booklist (starred review)