Augusto Monterroso is one of the best writers of Guatemala. His rigorous style and demanding literary quality stand not only as a lesson but as an awesome goal for writers of the younger generation. Monterroso's literary production, although small, has had an enormous impact on fiction in Latin America. His trademark brevity emerges in marked contrast to the flowery prose of the first half of the twentieth century as well as to the baroque linguistic experimentations of the Boom period. Along with Horacio Quiroga, Jorge Luis Borges, and Julio Cortázar, Monterroso cannot be omitted in any serious discussion of the development of Latin-American short fiction.

Augusto (Tito) Monterroso's first fifteen years were divided between two countries: Honduras, his mother's home, where he was born on 21 December 1921; and Guatemala, his father's birthplace. His middle-class family's frequent moves between the two capitals, Tegucigalpa and Guatemala City, interrupted Monterroso's...