In 1984 Vargas Llosa published Historia de Mayta, a novel whose title alludes to the ambiguous relationship between story and history that was a crucial theme in La guerra del fin del mundo. The English translation appeared under the title The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, for lack of an equivalent of the dual meaning of the Spanish ‘historia’. Vargas Llosa put it on record that he was unhappy with the English title, and unhappy with the reception of his book as a political novel. Although he initially commented widely on the political meaning of the novel in his interviews following the publication of Historia de Mayta, he later insisted that its primary concern was the metafictional aspect of a writer-protagonist seen at work, converting history into fiction, stating that the work ‘stands as a metaphor for my vocation as a writer’. A considerable number of his critics, however, focused on the novel's harsh representation of the Peruvian Left as illusionary, irresponsible and hypocritical, accusing Vargas Llosa of misrepresenting historical left-wing revolutionary movements and caricaturing recognizable contemporary leftist personalities. This critical reception was not least influenced by Vargas Llosa's highly controversial political position in Peru after his role in the report on the murders of journalists in Uchuraccay in 1983 (see chapter 3 above), a year before Historia de Mayta appeared. The fact that political violence, past and present, plays a pivotal role in this novel makes it difficult to see it solely as an exercise in metafiction.