The Peruvian Julio Ramón Ribeyro is one of the masters of the short story and a major contributor to the great flourishing of Latin American literature that followed the Second World War. In a letter to an editor, Ribeyro said about his stories "in most of [them] those who are deprived of words in life find expression—the marginalized, the forgotten, those condemned to an existence without harmony and without voice. I have restored to them the breath they've been denied, and I've allowed them to modulate their own longings, outbursts, and distress." This is work of deep humanity, imbued with a disorienting lyricism that is Ribeyro's alone. The Word of the Speechless, edited and translated by Katherine Silver, is the first gathering of this great writer's work to appear in English. It introduces readers to an indispensable and unforgettable voice.