THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 'A wildly enjoyable book; the 85-year-old Vargas Llosa is as sharp and mordantly funny as ever.' Financial Times 'A compelling and propulsive literary thriller.' Hari Kunzru, New York Times Book Review 'A splendidly rich and absorbing novel.' The Scotsman 'Compelling . . . full of intrigue, backstabbing and shifting power dynamics.' Irish Times Guatemala, 1954. A CIA-supported military coup topples the government. Behind this violent act is a lie passed off as truth, which forever changed the development of Latin America: that those in power encouraged the spread of Soviet communism in the Americas. Mario Vargas Llosa has written a drama on a world stage, in which some persecutors end up as victims of the very plot they helped construct. Ironic and sensual, provocative and redemptive, Harsh Times is a story of international conspiracies and conflicting interests in the time of the Cold War, the echoes of which are still felt today.