These poems range in theme from pain of exile to joys of love to the horrors of political repression. Benedetti also frequently conveys with Kafkaesque irony the impact of bureaucracy on the lives of ordinary citizens. His latest poems in this collection focus on the personal and collective problems of reintegration into a wounded and changed society and the desire for universal brotherhood.
Mario Benedetti was born in 1920 in Uruguay. He lived much of his life in political exile. Writing from exile, he was able to inform the world about the tragic events in his own country and to gain international recognition.
