Tyrant Memory

The tyrant of Horacio Castellanos Moyas ambitious new novel is the actual pro-Nazi mystic Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez 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, Haydee Aragon, is a well-off woman, whose husband is a political prisoner and whose son, Clemente, after prematurely announcing the dictators 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 Haydees political awakening in diary entries and Clementes 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- trys history in the destiny of one family.