Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America

From theesteemedNew Yorkercorrespondent comes an incisive volume of essays and reportage that vividly illuminates Latin Americas recent history. Only Alma Guillermoprieto, the most highly regarded writer on the region, could unravel the complex threads of Colombias cocaine wars or assess the combination of despotism, charm, and political jiu-jitsu that has kept Fidel Castro in power for more than 40 years. And no one else can write with such acumen and sympathy about statesmen and campesinos, leftist revolutionaries and right-wing militias, and political figures from Evita Peron to Mexicos irrepressible president, Vicente Fox. Whether she is following the historic papal visit to Havana or staying awake for a pre-dawn interview with an insomniac Subcomandante Marcos, Guillermoprieto displays both the passion and knowledge of an insider and the perspective of a seasoned analyst.Looking for Historyis journalism in the finest traditions of Joan Didion, V. S. Naipaul, and Ryszard Kapucinski: observant, empathetic, and beautifully written.