AbstractAs demonstrated extensively by translation studies, national images and their reception undergo significant changes in the transfer process to another culture. From this perspective,La pena máximaby Roncagliolo is an interesting case: not only is the plot tied in with the theme of football, which is widely believed to embody national identity, but it has also been commented on in different target cultures. The reception study displays how the images of Argentina and Peru, which the novel deconstructs by using the 1978 World Cup as a pretext to expose the atrocities perpetrated by their respective totalitarian regimes, are perceived in the Hispanic context and in the French and Dutch literary systems into which they have been translated. While the Argentinian and the French reviews skate over the gruesome reality, the Peruvian, the Spanish and the Dutch ones assume the negative images by emphasizing their socio-political relevance.