Traven is an elusive, even mysterious figure - probably a German living in Mexico, but he appears to have covered his tracks successfully (the film Treasure of Sierra Madre was based on one of his books). He wrote in Spanish and this novel, over forty years old, is one of a series about the bloody Mexican Revolution early in this century which claimed several million lives. To judge from this example, Traven was a vigorous, unsubtle, rather cinematic writer who does at least convey a powerful, indigenous flavour of Mexico and a sense of the endemic class antagonisms and racial tensions which almost inevitably exploded into war.