The Tattooed Soldier

by Héctor Tobar

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A Guatemalan refugee whose family was killed by a death squad spots one of the killers playing chess in a park in Los Angeles and plots revenge. The denouement comes during one of the city's riots.

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The story of two refugees of Guatemala - one an ex- Government soldier, the other the husband and father of victims murdered by the first. When Antonio discovers by chance that the murderer of his young family is living nearby in Los Angeles he sets out to have revenge on the man he recognises only by a tattoo he saw once - on the day of the murders. Set against the background of the 'Homeless' communities and the poverty-stricken immigrant quarters of Los Angeles, the protagonists move in flash back to a plot which began in Guatemala years before. The tale's pathos is in its understanding both of the psychology of poverty, fear, and loneliness and how these things divide as well as unite communities everywhere; and of how the roles of show more victim and aggressor / innocent and guilty are never as straightforward as one might suppose. Powerful imager and a fast read.. show less

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9+ Works 1,536 Members
Héctor Tobar was born in 1963 in Los Angeles, California. He received an M.F.A. from the University of California at Irvine and became a reporter with the Los Angeles Times in the 1980's. Along with a team of writers, he was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the L.A. riots in 1992. He has written both fiction and non-fiction works. show more His novels include The Tattooed Soldier and The Barbarian Nurseries, which won the California Book Award Gold Medal for Fiction. His non-fiction works include Translation Nation and Deep Down Dark. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Suspense & Thriller
DDC/MDS
813.54Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English1900-19991945-1999
LCC
PS3570 .O22 .T38Language and LiteratureAmerican literatureAmerican literatureIndividual authors1961-
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English
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Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
5
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2