Macario is the story of a poor man who has been hungry all his life. He suffers from a gnawing poverty which never quite kills, but also never quite permits any visible change or hope. Despite his acceptance of his colorless existence, he has a fantasy which becomes a tacit means of survival, nourishing him far more than does his meager daily diet.

Sheilah R. Wilson's edition, designed for the English speaker, sheds new light on this 1960 Spanish work by the elusive B. Traven, author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.