With the panoramic sweep of a Diego Rivera mural, The Book of Lamentations weaves together dozens of characters, plot lines, and perspectives in a tour-de-force of narrative structure that builds to an inexorable conclusion as unflinching as it is devastating. Based on episodes from actual Maya uprisings of 1712 and 1868, which are transposed in time to the 1930's, the novel merges a wealth of historical information and local detail into a vision of the nature of oppression that is universal in scope.