Héroes convocados
Paco Ignacio Taibo II

FICTION | 2016 | 144 pages

WINNER OF THE GRIJALBO NOVEL PRIZE

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 Tlatelolco by firing into the crowd, killing more than 200 students and civilians and wounding hundreds more. The Tlatelolco massacre was erased from the official record as easily as authorities washing the blood from the streets, and no one was ever held accountable.

It is two years later and Nestor, a journalist and participant in the fateful events, lies recovering in the hospital from a knife wound. His fevered imagination leads him in the collection of facts and memories of the movement and its assassination in the company of figures from his childhood. Nestor calls on the heroes of his youth—Sherlock Holmes, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and D’Artagnan among them—to join him in launching a new reform movement conceived by his intensely active imagination.

RIGHTS: spanish PLANETA | english PM PRESS | italian TROPEA | french RIVAGES

No matter what happens, Taibo’s novels constitute an absurdist manifesto. No matter how oppressive the government, no matter how strict the limitations of life, we all have our imaginations, our inventiveness.
The Washington Post

BY PACO IGNACIO TAIBO II:

Pancho Villa
NONFICITON, 2024
La libertad
NONFICTION, 2022
La historia del gueto de varsovia
NONFICTION, 2022
Todo Belascoarán
FICTION, 2021
El general orejón ese
NONFICTION, 2021
Yaquis
NONFICTION, 2020
Cuentos incompletos
SHORT STORIES, 2020
Cuatro manos
FICTION, 2020
Retornamos como sombras
FICTION, 2020
Temporada de zopilotes
NONFICTION, 2020
La bicicleta de Leonardo
FICTION, 2020
Bolcheviques
NONFICTION, 2019
De paso
FICTION, 2017
68
NONFICTION, 2016
Héroes convocados
FICTION, 2016
El Álamo
NONFICTION, 2013
El ciego, la cabeza y el golpe
SHORT STORIES, 2013
La vida misma
FICTION, 2012
Los libres no reconocen rivales
NONFICTION, 2012
La lejanía del tesoro
FICTION, 2011
El retorno de los tigres de Malasia
FICTION, 2011
Olga Forever
FICTION, 2007
Doña Eustolia blandió el cuchillo cebollero
SHORT STORIES, 2003
Arcángeles
FICTION, 1998
Ernesto Guevara, también conocido como el Che
NONFICTION, 1996