When A Beauty That Hurts first appeared in 1995, Guatemala was one of the world’s most flagrant violators of human rights. An accord brokered by the United Nations brought a measure of peace after three decades of armed conflict, but the country’s troubles are far from over. George Lovell revisits Guatemala to grapple once again with the terror inflicted on its Maya peoples by a military-dominated state.

W. George Lovell is professor of geography at Queen’s University and visiting professor in Latin American history at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain.

W. George Lovell's profile page

"Like the experience of many people who have journeyed to the country, in Guatemala I saw numerous contradictions of beauty and violence that captivated and mystified. In A Beauty That Hurts, George Lovell eloquently contemplates these contradictions by addressing how a visually stunning, culturally diverse, and resource-rich region could be embroiled in political violence that has lasted for centuries."

Curtis D. Holder, “The Professional Geographer”

"When anyone asks me to recommend a book to bring them up to date on Guatemala, the only book I can recommend is A Beauty That Hurts....It is the only book that provides readers with an understanding of Guatemala’s complex colonial history and the continued struggle for survival in twenty-first century Guatemala."

Matthew J. Taylor, “Journal of Latin American Geography”