This "vast and intriguing novel" explores the life of an Irish nationalist who exposed Britain's colonial crimes-by the Nobel Prize-winning author (
Guardian, UK).
In 1916, the Irish nationalist Roger Casement was hanged by the British government for treason. Casement had dedicated his extraordinary life to improving the plight of oppressed peoples around the world-especially the native populations in the Belgian Congo and the Amazon. But when he dared to draw a parallel between the injustices he witnessed in African and American colonies and those committed by the British in Northern Ireland, he became involved in a cause that led to his imprisonment and execution.
When Casement's homosexuality was revealed by his prosecutors-who drew excerpts from his personal "black diary"-the resulting scandal tainted his image to such a degree that his pioneering human rights work was nearly forgotten to history.
In
The Dream of the Celt, Mario Vargas Llosa-one of Latin America's most vibrant, provocative, and necessary literary voices-brings this complex character to life as no other writer can. A masterful work, sharply translated by Edith Grossman,
The Dream of the Celt tackles a controversial man whose story has long been neglected, and, in so doing, pushes at the boundaries of the historical novel.
