'boom' was a logical development of the Latin American culture before Europe, and specifically France, decided to turn its attention to this continent following the Cuban Revolution of 1959 to ascertain what it was that set this tiny island apart from the rest. France 'discovered' Latin America and soon after, so did the Latin American publishers who, till then, had been returning to their writers one manuscript after another. The aim of this paper is to trace the development, in brief, of the Latin American novel and to show that the 'new' novels, which appeared as far back as 1949, are a logical culmination of the continents development. I shall refer to the Latin American novel, rather than the Mexican, Colombian or Peruvian because in all these countries the emergence of the new writing has been more or less simultaneous. Also, despite the national and geographical specificities of various regions the literature encompasses pr&blems relating to the entire subcontinent. I was struck by one more factor while working on the evolution of this literature. The various stages that the post-colonial Latin American cultures passed through are not a unique phenomenon. Despite the many differences and pecularities of each nation most post-colonial cultures are evolving on a similar pattern with numerous points of contact which can be roughly divided into three stages : (1) Derivative (2) A return to one's roots (3) The establishment of one's own identity. I will attempt to illustrate this development in the Latin American context. What makes the Latin American continent different from other colonial nations can be traced back to nearly five centuries earlier when it was discovered by Christopher Columbus. The Spanish and Portuguese conquest was established after a long drawn-out battle with the local population. Three centuries of colonialism was not confined to the political or administrative level. It was also an ideological and spiritual colonisation where an attempt was made to annihilate local religions and traditions. But over a period of time what occurred was an amalgamation and mutual influence of the culture of the conquerors with that of the local culture. As a result a peculiar situation arose whereby the ancient myths, legends and religious rituals of the Incas, Kechuas and other American races got draped in Christian rituals and vice versa. To the Indian and European mix was added subsequently the African culture of the slaves who were brought to the sub-continent Latin America thus became 'the most sensational meeting ground of different ethnic races. It was the point of contact between the Indian, the Negro and the European... each of whom was destined to mix with the other, remarks Alejo Carpentier, who further adds: 'We were original long before the idea of originality concretised itself as an aim for us'.2 By the time Spanish colonialism was overthrown, towards the beginning of 8 January-June 1985