Sergio Ramírez is a leading Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who served in the Junta of National Reconstruction and as vice president of the country from 1984 until 1990. He is the author of over thirty books, among them nine works of fiction, and he is the recipient of numerous honors, including the L'Ordre du Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France.Michael B. Miller, former professor of Spanish and Latin American literatures, holds a PhD from George Washington University. He has translated numerous works from Spanish, including A Place Called Milagro de la Paz by Manlio Argueta.

"Sergio Ramírez has taken the best ingredients of Nicaraguan history—dictatorship and poetry, madness and love, conspiracies and con-men—and cooked them into a masterpiece that will thrill English-language readers as it has those of us who have read Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea in Spanish."—Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden|"Using brilliant language, Ramírez interweaves myth and reality to enrich the plot of this fascinating novel."—Claribel Alegría, author of Sorrow, and co-author of Death of Somoza|"A total novel about the secret mysteries of science, of poetry, and of dictatorships. the beauties of Rubén Darío and the horrors of Somoza intertwine in an unforgettable and absorbing story."—Thomás Eloy Martinez

Sergio Ramírez is a leading Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who served in the Junta of National Reconstruction and as vice president of the country from 1984 until 1990. He is the author of over thirty books, among them nine works of fiction, and he is the recipient of numerous honors, including the L'Ordre du Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France.Michael B. Miller, former professor of Spanish and Latin American literatures, holds a PhD from George Washington University. He has translated numerous works from Spanish, including A Place Called Milagro de la Paz by Manlio Argueta.

"Sergio Ramírez has taken the best ingredients of Nicaraguan history—dictatorship and poetry, madness and love, conspiracies and con-men—and cooked them into a masterpiece that will thrill English-language readers as it has those of us who have read Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea in Spanish."—Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden|"Using brilliant language, Ramírez interweaves myth and reality to enrich the plot of this fascinating novel."—Claribel Alegría, author of Sorrow, and co-author of Death of Somoza|"A total novel about the secret mysteries of science, of poetry, and of dictatorships. the beauties of Rubén Darío and the horrors of Somoza intertwine in an unforgettable and absorbing story."—Thomás Eloy Martinez