The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico (El labertino de la soledad, 1950) is Paz's powerful nonfiction work that contains elements of autobiography, literary criticism, and social commentary. The book probes Mexican identity by examining the nature of political power in Mexico after the Spanish conquest as well as the relation of Native Americans to Europeans.

In his lecture given upon receiving the Nobel Prize in 1990, entitled "In Search of the Present," Paz discusses language, history, myth, and poetry. He speaks about the bridge between tradition and modernity as new life is constantly breathed into antiquity, and also of his "pilgrimage in search of modernity" that led to a recognition of the "real time" of the present.

A Tale of Two Gardens: Poems from India 1952- 1995 collects the poetry from over forty years of Paz's relationship with India—as...