Men of Maize
Miguel Ángel Asturias author Gerald Martin translator Gerald Martin editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:24th Apr '25
Should be back in stock very soon

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
A novel whose time has come: the Nobel Prize–winning author's visionary epic of ecological devastation, capitalist exploitation and indigenous wisdom
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 Ángel 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.
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 Asturias’s 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 Guatemala’s many Mayan cultures alive and resilient -- Héctor Tobar
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 ... 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
ISBN: 9780143138402
Dimensions: 196mm x 131mm x 18mm
Weight: 470g
320 pages