Pedro Páramo is a novel written by Juan Rulfo about a man named Juan Preciado who travels to his recently deceased mother's hometown, Comala, to find his father, only to come across a literal ghost town─populated, that is, by spectral figures. Initially, the novel was met with cold critical reception and sold only two thousand copies during the first four years; later, however, the book became highly acclaimed. "Páramo" was a key influence on Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. "Pedro Páramo" has been translated into more than 30 different languages and the English version has sold more than a million copies in the United States.