Heading south, looking north : a bilingual journey / Ariel Dorfman

Ariel Dorfman has been hailed as one of the "greatest living Latin American novelists" and "a storyteller of almost mythic intensity". In his brilliant memoir, Heading South, Looking North, Dorfman explores the many exiles of a life torn, from age two, between the United States and Latin America, between revolution and repression. Interwoven with the remarkable story of how he switched languages and cultures -- not once, but three times -- is a day-by-day account of his multiple escapes from death during a military takeover in Chile. Dorfman filters these events through his dual and hybrid life speaking, reading, thinking at times in Spanish, at times English. Beautifully written and deeply moving, Heading South, Looking North is at once a vivid account of a life as complex and mysterious as the fictional characters Dorfman creates, and an enthralling meditation about true personal conviction and courage in the late twentieth century.