I, the Supreme

Augusto Roa Bastos · 1917–2005 · Paraguay

Originally Yo el Supremo (Spanish) · translated by Helen Lane

Why it matters

Paraguay's real nineteenth-century dictator-for-life narrates himself into being through dictation, forged documents, and his own marginal corrections. The dictator novel pushed to its most linguistically extreme, self-annotating limit.

At a glance

A fractured, self-interrupting monologue layered with footnotes and forged documents demands sustained, deliberate reading.