num_pages: 176
description: 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.
language: English
title: The Assault
titlecomplete: The Assault
genres: Dystopia, Literary Fiction, Literature, Fiction, Surreal, Contemporary
ratings_count: 206
series: Pentagonía
publisher: Penguin Books