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This article places Tomas Eloy Martinez's work, in particular his two ‘biographical’ novels La novela de Peron and Santa Evita, within post-1960 Latin American literature. It explains why Martinez's full critical recognition is still pending. To this end the article shows how, situated strategically between the 1960s ‘Boom’ novels and the ‘Post-Boom’ novels of the 1970s and beyond, Martinez's novels assimilate lessons of the Boom to carry that work in new directions. Thereafter the article discusses the role of journalism in literature, before assessing Martinez's work as both journalist and fiction writer, pointing out how these areas meld to produce new hybrid forms in his two major works.

These thoughtfully assembled writings by many of Latin America's finest authors bear first-person witness to the personal, social, and political situation of the writer and of literature in Latin America. At different times ironic, impassioned, humorous, reflective, autobiographical, polemical, and always vivid and engaging, this collection of writings is indispensable to a full appreciation of the achievement of twentieth-century Latin American literature.