Pedro Páramo

Obra maestra del universo literario en español, esta portentosa novela mexicana narra la historia de Pedro Páramo, un caudillo local de quien dependen la vida y la muerte de un pueblo, Comala, y del hijo que va a buscarlo porque así se lo prometió a su madre moribunda. El narrador, JuanPreciado, llega a un pueblo deshabitado pero lleno de susurros, y a través de estos conoce la destrucción que trajo la convulsa pasión de Pedro Páramo hacia Susana San Juan. Publicada en 1955 y aclamada por el público y la crítica, Pedro Páramo representa un cambio radical con la novela realista de la época. Edición con introducción de Gabriel García Márquez.

Compulsory reading in the realm of Latin American literature, this short 1955 novel by Juan Rulfo, Mexico’s most highly acclaimed author to date, has become a modern classic.

A masterpiece of the surreal, this stunning novel from Mexico depicts a man’s strange quest for his heritage. Beseeched by his dying mother to locate his father, Pedro Páramo, whom they fled from years ago, Juan Preciado sets out for Comala. Comala is a town alive with whispers and shadows–a place seemingly populated only by memory and hallucinations. Built on the tyranny of the Páramo family, its barren and broken-down streets echo the voices of tormented spirits sharing the secrets of the past.

First published to both critical and popular acclaim in 1955, Pedro Páramo represented a distinct break with earlier, largely ‘realist’ novels from Latin America. Rulfo’s entrancing mixture of vivid sensory images, violent passions, and inexplicable sorcery–a style that has come to be known as ‘magical realism’–has exerted a profound influence on subsequent Latin American writers, from José Donoso and Carlos Fuentes to Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez.