A pessimistic novel about political power in a Latin American country, and the inhumanity and brutality that result when ideals and reality clash. NOSTROMO is considered by many to be Conrads greatest novel. It was one he hesitated to write, he says in the introduction, as if warned by the instinct of self-preservation from venturing on a distant and toilsome journey into a land full of intrigues and revolutions. But, he concludes, It had to be done.