The Lightning of August
Cover of the first edition. | |
| Author | Jorge Ibargüengoitia |
|---|---|
| Original title | Los relámpagos de agosto |
| Translator | Irene del Corral |
| Language | Spanish |
| Genre | Political satire |
| Publisher | Casa de las Américas (original) |
Publication date | 1964 |
| Publication place | Mexico |
Published in English | 1986 |
| OCLC | 341335 |
| LC Class | PQ7298.19.B3 |
Los relámpagos de agosto (officially translated as The Lightning of August) was the first novel written by Mexican author Jorge Ibargüengoitia.
Published for the first time in 1964, the text parodies the memories written by veterans of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and the armed revolts that continued to destabilize the country for the next two decades. Since many of those veterans had joined the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) —a political organization that had ruled Mexico by rigging elections and engaging in massive corruption and cronyism for most of the 20th century— the topic was still considered off-limits by the governing regime (and the literary critics that sympathized with it) at the time of its publication.
Critically, the novel went on to receive the 1964 Casa de las Américas annual prize. It has also been distributed among Mexican public schools through the National Reading Program and it was selected by the Guadalajara International Book Fair to celebrate the 2010 World Book Day.