 Asturias makes early use of a literary technique now known as magic realism.One of the most notable works of the dictator novel genre, developed from an earlier Asturias short story, written to protest social injustice in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in the author's home town.Although does not explicitly identify its setting as early twentieth-century Guatemala, the novel's title character was inspired by the 1898–1920 presidency of Manuel Estrada Cabrera.