And we sold the rain : contemporary fiction from Central America / edited by Rosario Santos

Bibliography: p. xxiv.

Look at Lislique, see how pretty it is / Jacinta Escudos (El Salvador) -- The proof / Rodrigo Rey Rosa (Guatemala) -- Anita the insect catcher / Roberto Castillo (Honduras) -- Confinement / Horacio Castellanos Moya (Honduras) -- Story of the maestro who spent his whole life composing a piece for the Marimba / Mario Payeras (Guatemala) -- Guatemala 1954 : funeral for a bird / Arturo Arias (Guatemala) -- I am René Espronceda de la Barca / Leonel Rugama (Nicaragua) -- For these things my name is René / Mario Roberto Morales (Guatemala) -- April in the forenoon / Julio Escoto (Honduras) -- The perfect game / Sergio Ramírez (Nicaragua) -- In the shade of a little old lady in flower / Alfonso Quijada Urías (El Salvador) -- Tarantulas of honey / Pedro Rivera (Panama) -- A March guayacan / Bertalicia Peralta (Panama) -- Microbus to San Salvador / Manlio Argueta (El Salvador) -- Sodom / Samuel Rovinski (Costa Rica) -- And we sold the rain / Carmen Naranjo (Costa Rica) -- The dog / Lyzandro Chávez Alfaro (Nicaragua) -- Boardinghouse / Claribel Alegría (El Salvador) -- Mr. Taylor / Augusto Monterroso (Guatemala) -- Self-defense / Fabian Dobles (Costa Rica).

Half these short stories from Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Honduras, and Nicaragua powerfully evoke life in these countries--a good average for any book. Familiar authors are represented (Alegria, Ramirez), along with obscure but promising ones (Monteroso, Rovinski), and the varied subjects include baseball, entomology, and, of course, life during war. Because this region's culture has been eclipsed for so long by its politics, such a collection in English is long overdue.