Mexican Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo (1955) and Brazilian Joao Guimaraes Rosa's Grande Sertao: Veredas (1956) are two of the most widely praised novels that have been produced in Latin American literature. Besides being masterpieces in their own right, the novels of Rulfo and Guimaraes Rosa represent the turning point in the development of the New Novel in this collective literature. In fact, not only are they the first to embody fully the major character- istics of the New Novel, but these two works mark the starting point of a period dominated by innovative prose fiction.