Amazon.com (ISBN 0312145993, Hardcover)

A biography of Evita, the saintly madonna of Argentina which leans more toward entertainment than heavy history. Ortiz recounts Eva Peron's humble birth, her extraordinary rise to power in Argentina at the side of her husband General Juan Peron, and her short and legendary reign as a virtual queen, dispensing comfort to the masses before she died from cancer at 33. Evita was christened Eva Maria Duarte by her mother, whose liberal sex life was a necessary response to poverty. The beautiful Eva found the same necessity when she went to find work as an actress in Buenos Aires. Eva's power over men eventually caught General Peron, and together their hatred of the ruling oligarchy reshaped the country. It is a political story with enough spice to make a dozen bodice-ripping novels.