A searing novel of the post-1910 Mexican revolutionary era that itself challenged the Mexican political establishment, Guzmán's The Shadow of the Strongman (La Sombra del Caudillo) stands beside Azuela's The Underdogs (Los de abajo) in the pantheon of Mexican fiction. Unmasking the years of political intrigue and assassination that followed the Revolution, the novel was adapted in the 1960 film La Sombra del Caudillo, which was banned in Mexico for thirty years.

Edited and translated by: Gustavo Pellon