The Feast of the Goat

Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Feast of the Goat is a disturbing work of historical fiction about the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo – and the people who fear and loathe him in equal measure.

The Goat is a paranoid, vengeful, deeply insecure strongman who insists on naming things – like the capital city – after himself. He has amassed lavish wealth. He has poor taste. He desperately wants people to envy him. He is miserable.

Having held onto power for decades, he rules with an iron fist. He surrounds himself with yes-men who go along with his conspiracies and line up to take the fall. He fears democracy. He’s a xenophobe and a sexual predator. He’s terrifying and pathetic.

But this novel isn’t only about the Goat. It’s just as much about the costly compromises people make to remain in his good graces. There is nothing they won’t sacrifice, nothing they hold dear. In the end, they all lose.