Carolyn Forche What You Have Heard Is True : A Memoir of Witness & Resistance

Astonishing, powerful, so important at this time Margaret Atwood (on Twitter)Riveting . . . intricate and surprising The New York TimesReading it will change you, perhaps forever San Francisco ChronicleAn electrifying memoir set in the Salvadoran Civil Warthe true story of a young poet who becomes an activist through a trial by fireCarolyn Forch, an American poet, is 27 when a mysterious stranger called Leonel appears on her doorstep, having driven direct from El Salvador. Her friend has heard rumours about who he might be a communist, a CIA operative, a sharpshooter, a motorcycle racer, a revolutionary, a small coffee farmer but nobody seems to know for certain. Captivated for reasons she doesnt fully understand, she accepts his invitation to visit and learn about his country, and so becomes enmeshed in the early stages of a brutal civil conflict which will ultimately see the Salvadoran state turn paramilitary death squads against its own people, and leave nearly 90,000 dead or disappeared. Leonel knows that war is coming, and he wants Carolyn as a writer to bear witness to it. Told across peasant shanties, protest marches, the grand homes of retired generals and safe houses on the run, What You Have Heard Is True is the devastating true story of a young womans choice to engage with horror in order to help others, of an unlikely friendship which will change thecourse of her life, and of a remarkable mans doomed effort to save his people from disaster. | Carolyn Forche What You Have Heard Is True : A Memoir of Witness & Resistance