Tyrant Memory
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
Castellanos Moya’s most thrilling book to date, about the senselessness of tyranny.
The tyrant of Horacio Castellanos Moya’s ambitious new novel is the actual pro-Nazi mystic Maximiliano Herna´ndez Marti´nez — known as the Warlock — who came to power in El Salvador in 1932. An attempted coup in April, 1944, failed, but a general strike in May finally forced him out of office. Tyrant Memory takes place during the month between the coup and the strike. Its protagonist, Hayde´e Aragon, is a well-off woman, whose husband is a political prisoner and whose son, Clemente, after prematurely announcing the dictator’s death over national radio during the failed coup, is forced to flee when the very much alive Warlock starts to ruthlessly hunt down his enemies. The novel moves between Hayde´e’s political awakening in diary entries and Clemente’s frantic and often hysterically comic efforts to escape capture. Tyrant Memory — sharp, grotesque, moving, and often hilariously funny — is an unforgettable incarnation of a coun- try’s history in the destiny of one family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moya's absorbing new novel is set in early 1944 El Salvador after a coup fails to depose real life pro-Nazi dictator Maximiliano Hern ndez Martinez. Members of Moya's fictional Aragon family play unexpected roles in the uprising: With her husband in prison, well-connected matriarch Hayd e must handle the crises that befall her family, such as when their newscaster son, Clemente, announces on-air that the dictator is dead, an error that could cost him his life. His cousin Jimmy, a tough military captain involved in the coup, helps the pampered Clemente escape (Clemente's entitled whining and Jimmy's bravado make for some very funny scenes). The story unfolds largely through Hayd e's diary, documenting her growth into solidarity with the politically oppressed; at great risk, she becomes involved in a general strike that eventually ousts the dictator. Moya (The She-Devil in the Mirror) has an unlikely heroine in Hayd e, but she possesses one quality that her husband lacks: she's not been corrupted or disillusioned by politics. This intriguing novel turns the spotlight from the rulers onto the hopeful souls who will tolerate tyranny for only so long.
