2020 Foreword INDIES Gold Winner for Multicultural Fiction2020 Mass Book Awards Must Read FictionAn inspired and urgent prose retelling of the Maya myth of creation by acclaimed Latin American author and scholar Ilan Stavans, gorgeously illustrated by Salvadoran folk artist Gabriela Larios and introduced by renowned author, diplomat, and environmental activist Homero Aridjis.

Praise for Ilan Stavans:“Ilan Stavans is an inventive interpreter of the contemporary cultures of the Americas…. Cantankerous and clever, sprightly and serious, Stavans is a voracious thinker. In his writing, life serves to illuminate literature—and vice versa: he is unafraid to court controversy, unsettle opinions, make enemies. In short, Stavans is an old-fashioned intellectual, a brilliant interpreter of his triple heritage—Jewish, Mexican, and American.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.“…in the void created by the death of his compatriot Octavio Paz, Ilan Stavans has emerged as Latin America’s liveliest and boldest critic and most innovative cultural enthusiast.”—The Washington Post“Ilan Stavans has done as much as anyone alive to bridge the hemisphere’s linguistic gaps.”—The Miami Herald“A canon-maker.”—The Chronicle of Higher Education“Ilan Stavans is a maverick intellectual whose canonical work has already produced a whole array of marvels... His incisive essays are redefining Jewish literature.”—The Forward“Ilan Stavans is the rarest of North American writers—he sees the Americas whole. Not since Octavio Paz has Mexico given us an intellectual so able to violate borders, with learning and grace.”—Richard Rodriguez“In the multicultural rainbow that is contemporary America, no one may be more representative of the state of the union than Ilan Stavans.”—Newsday“Ilan Stavans may very well succeed in becoming the Octavio Paz of our age.”—The San Francisco Chronicle“A virtuoso critic with an exuberant, encyclopedic, restless mind.” —The Forward“Ilan Stavans has the sharp eye of the internal exile. Writing about the sometimes reluctant reconquista of North America by Spanish-speaking cultures or the development of his own identity, he deals with both the life of the mind and the life of the streets.”—John Sayles“Lively and intelligent, eclectic, sharp-tongued.”—Peter Matthiessen“I think Stavans has one of the best grips around on what makes Spanish America tick.”—Gregory Rabassa“Ilan Stavans is a disciple of Kafka and Borges. He accepts social identity broadly, in the most cosmopolitan terms… His impulse is to broaden, not to narrow; he finds understanding through complication of identity, not through the easy gestures of ethnic politics.”—The New York Times“Ilan Stavans has established himself as an invaluable commentator of literature.”—Phillip Lopate

"At a time when so many of us ask ourselves about the end of the world as we know it, few books could be more relevant than this sacred text of the Maya. In a mesmerizing, illuminating new translation, Ilan Stavans brings to contemporary readers this lyrical epic, with its messages from a lost civilization obsessed, as ours should be, with the inevitable cycles of catastrophe and change. The Popol Vuh encourages us to contemplate the perpetual conflict between truth and falsehood, light and darkness, so that we may find the wisdom to emerge as better people."—Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden