José Emilio Pacheco

"This landmark novella -one of the central texts of Mexican literature, is eerily relevant to our current dark times- offers a child's-eye view of a society beset by dictators, disease, and natural disasters, set in 'the year of polio, foot-and- mouth disease, floods.' A middle-class boy grows up in a world of children aping adults (mock wars at recess pit Arabs against Jews), where a child's left to ponder "how many evils and catastrophes we have...