La historia de Roger Casement se apaga y renace despues de su muerte. Sus restos fueron enterrados sin lapida, ni cruz, ni iniciales. Mario Vargas Llosa restituye la tesitura de un personaje asombroso que vivio entre 1864 y 1916. Fue diplomatico britanico, denuncio grandes crimenes que se cometieron en el Congo y en la Amazonia en nombre del colonialismo, y milito activamente en el nacionalismo irlandes. Pero ni en el Congo ni en la Amazonia ha quedado rastro de quien tanto hizo. En Irlanda, esparcidos por la isla, quedan apenas unos cuantos recuerdos suyos. Mario Vargas Llosa lo trae al presente, en esta novela impresionante, con la contundencia de quien hizo de su vida un ejercicio de libertad intelectual.

Four years after publishing, "Travesuras de la ni a mala", Vargas Llosa has completed "El sueno del celta", a work based on the provocative life of Irishman Roger Casement, one of the first to document human rights abuses in European-ruled colonies.

Casement's shocking revelations exposed a painful truth: Europeans were committing unspeakably barbarous acts in the name of commerce, civilization, and Christianity. What Casement witnessed ultimately led him to confront England and the imperialist policies enforced in his native Ireland. He became a militant for the Irish Nationalist cause and during World War I conspired with the German government to purchase weapons for a revolt set to take place during the Easter holiday. But the weapons never made it to Irish shores, and the British brutally suppressed the Easter Rising. All Irish rebel leaders, including Casement, were executed. Many pleaded clemency for Casement including Arthur Conan Doyle, W.B. Yeats, and George B. Shaw.