Overview
"The real enchantment of Mr. Taibo's storytelling lies in the wild and melancholy tangle of life he sees everywhere." —New York Times Book Review
The euphoric idealism of grassroots reform and the tragic reality of revolutionary failure are at the center of this speculative novel that opens with a real historical event. On October 2, 1968, 10 days before the Summer Olympics in Mexico, the Mexican government responds to a student demonstration in Tlatelolcothe by firing into the crowd, killing more than 200 students and civilians and wounding hundreds more. The massacre does not receive much international attention and though many students are detained, no officials are held accountable. The story then skips ahead two years to a hospital in Mexico City and introduces Nestor, a fictional journalist who witnessed the shootings at Tlatelolcothe. He has been admitted to the hospital for a knife wound, and as he lies in bed, his fevered imagination goes back to the day of the riot. In his delirious state, he becomes so desperate he calls on the heroes of his youth—Sherlock Holmes, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and D'Artagnan among them—to join him in launching a new movement of reform.Reviews
"The real enchantment of Mr. Taibo's storytelling lies in the wild and melancholy tangle of life he sees everywhere." —New York Times Book Review
"Taibo's writing is witty, provocative, finely nuanced, and well worth the challenge." —Publishers Weekly
"I am [Taibo's] number one fan . . . I can always lose myself in one of his novels because of their intelligence and humor." —Laura Esquivel, author, Like Water for Chocolate
"Taibo's novels constitute an absurdist manifesto." —Washington Post Book World
"Taibo uses humour and an unrivalled inventiveness to shine a light onto the darkness, and the result is intoxicating, and subversive, enchantment." —The Latin American Review of BooksAuthor Biography
Paco Ignacio Taibo II is the author of 68; Guevara, Also Known as Che; and The Shadow of the Shadow. His biographies of Guevara and Pancho Villa have sold more than one million copies worldwide, and he is the founder and organizer of the annual crime fiction film festival, Semana Negra, held each summer in Spain. He has won numerous international literary awards, including three Hammett Awards and the National History Award from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. He lives in Mexico City, Mexico.