"I did not go to Nicaragua intending to write a book, or, indeed, to write at all: but my encounter with the place affected me so deeply that in the end I had no choice." So notes Salman Rushdie in his first work of nonfiction, a book as imaginative and meaningful as his acclaimed novels. In The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie paints a brilliantly sharp and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the terrain, and the poetry of "a country in which the...

Insight Guides Central America covers the seven countries that make up this fascinating and culturally rich isthmus, from Guatemala to Panama, exploring Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica along the way. In addition, the guidebook covers the Southern Mexico states, in recognition of their cultural links to and practical inclusion on many trips to this region.