This work had a long conception. In two letters addressed in 1947 to his girlfriend Clara Aparicio, Rulfo names it Una estrella junto a la luna (A Star by the Moon), then changes it to Los murmullos (The Murmurs). Between 1953 and 1954, thanks to a grant, he was able to write it. In 1955 it appeared as a book and, since then, the recognition has been constant; among his admirers are Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez (“the most beautiful novel ever written in Spanish”), Jorge Luis Borges (“one of the best novels of Spanish-language literature, and even of literature”), Günter Grass, Susan Sontag (“one of the masterpieces of universal literature of the 20th century”), Kenzaburo Oé, Gao Xingjian and Tahar ben Jelloun. Their translations number close to fifty.
Definitive text of the work established by the Juan Rulfo Foundation.