Nothing is more exciting than the appearance of a new writer on the scene, opening new vistas on to a previously untraveled terrain. Roberto Quesada, the youngest and freshest new voice from Latin America, has been hailed by Latin American critics as "one of our most talented and original new writers" (Ramon Luis Acevedo) and ":.. among the most important latin American writers" (German Vargas).A novel of Central America, The Ships describes the occasional triumphs of daily life, usually in the form of silent laughter in a world of near poverty. It charts the progress of a young writer named Guillermo in the Honduran coastal town of La Ceiba. His nights alternate between falling deeply in love and loveless sexual escapades. His days are spent harvesting pineapples under a hot sun in the employ of the Standard Fruit Company. In the background there is a workers' strike at the plantation, a dance in La Ceiba, radio reports of the revolution going on in Nicaragua only a few hours' drive south, and the drone of American helicopters overhead. Quesada's world is topsy-turvy only in the sense that here human values of love and friendship dwarf the ostensibly much-larger corporate, military, and geopolitical issues. Read Less