Stylized & poetical novel following the stories of three different women during the Shining Path's would-be revolution. Sympathetically portrays a revolutionary, a campesina, & a bourgeois journalist, with occasional scenes portraying the president. While the three main characters are sympathetic, Jimenez does not pull any punches when it comes to the Shining Path, the urban upper classes, or traditional rural society. Maybe it's just my perspective, but I felt like Shining Path was portrayed as the most deluded, savaging & terrorizing the people they wanted to found their movement upon in ways similar to the state they wanted to overthrow. There are some especially harrowing scenes of sexual violence. I'd like to see the original Spanish language version.