Chimbote on the Peruvian Pacific coast. The city rapidly transformed from a village into the center of the fishmeal industry in the 1960s: a monstrous place filled with harbor bars, brothels, and slums where exploited indigenous workers from the mountains reside. Arguedas depicts urban life and the endangered nature in images of decay: seagulls and dogs fight over the waste of an overfished sea, and in the flickering din of voices, everyone speaks for themselves. The experience of crisis and decay also seeps into the novel itself, as diary entries from the author interrupt the narrative. In these, Arguedas attempts to capture what he loves and what is at risk of disappearing: the nature of the Andes, to whose beauty he dedicates sparkling miniatures, and the indigenous culture of Peru, which is being displaced by capitalist modernity. Arguedas struggles with the novel, observes his own psychological unraveling, and harbors suicidal thoughts. Writing becomes a survival strategy—until the author's farewell letter brings the text to an end. Arguedas' last book is the poignant document of this existential failure and at the same time the great Peruvian novel of the 20th century. The unparalleled hybrid language of the original has been translated into German in a masterful way by Matthias Strobel.