In the two decades since Sergio Ramírez left active politics as a Sandinista leader of one of the great leftist revolutions of the Americas, his output as a writer and the appreciation of his literary achievement have only grown larger, culminating in his winning the Cervantes Prize, the highest literary accolade for a writer in the Hispanic world.These stories dating from early in his writing career and also marking his return to literature after a gap of some years in active politics, testify to the subtlety, delicacy and wit of Nicaragua’s leading literary voice.