In this, the final volume in the series of five novels that constitute his "secret history of Cuba", Reinaldo Arenas paints a harrowing, and at times boldly entertaining, Kafka-esque picture of a dehumanized people living in a world where homosexuality is a crime punishable by death and a cockroach hunt makes for a national holiday. Narrated by a hate-filled government torturer who has become an agent for the "Bureau of Counterwhispering"," The Assault follows his travels through a blackly humorous shadowland as he winnow out whisperers, sexual deviants, and dissidents of every sort--until memory has been banished and spoken language has been nearly forgotten.

Introduction

One: The River Plate
Horacio Quiroga: The Dead Man
Julia Cortázar: Axolotl
Armonía Somers: Waiting for Polidoro
Jorge Luís Borges: The Circular Ruins
Juan Carlos Onetti: The Dog Will Have Its Day
Adolfo Bioy Casares: The Idol
Manuel Puig: Relative Humidity 95%

Two: Chile
Isabel Allende: Toad's Mouth

Three: Brazil
Jorge Amado: The Miracle of the Birds
Murilo Rubião: The Ex-Magician from the Minhota Tavern
Clarice Lispector: Love
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis: The Psychiatrist
Moacyr Scliar: The Plagues
João Guimarães Rosa: The Third Bank of the River
João Ubaldo Ribeiro: It Was a Different Day When They Killed the Pig
Lygia Fagundes Telles: The Corset
Rubem Fonseca: Lonelyhearts
Paulo Emílio Salles Gomes: Twice with Helena

Four: Mexico
Carlos Fuentes: The Doll Queen
Juan Rulfo: Luvina

Five: The Caribbean
Rosario Ferré: The Gift
Reinaldo Arenas: Bestial Among the Flowers
Ana Lydia Vega: Story-Bound
Gabriel García Márquez: The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship
Guillermo Cabrera Infante: The Phantom of the Essoldo
Alejo Carpentier: Journey Back to the Source