Calling All Heroes A Manual for Taking Power: A Novel

by Taibo II, Paco Ignacio

• ISBN13: 9781604862058
• ISBN10: 160486205X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-01
• Publisher: PM Press

Summary

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 youthSherlock Holmes, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and D'Artagnan among themto join him in launching a new movement of reform.

Author 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.