The Skies of Curumo is a story constructed like a house of cards. The lives of five friends, the urban landscape of Caracas, incessant rain, the urgency of scavenging animals, evil that corrodes, and the signs of the decline of a country that could not see what was coming, all collide together. Chirinos is a ruthless storyteller. His writing is shown here in all its splendour: raw, unsympathetic and yet still luminous. His accurately analyses power is accurate by not shying away from sordidness - no punches are pulled. His mastery of language and narrative techniques is astounding. Anyone who reads Chirinos will not be surprised to recall José Balza, the first Vargas Llosa, Céline, Faulkner or the Cepeda of La Casa Grande. These are the masters who seem to illuminate this prose.