The tyrant of Horacio Castellanos Moya's ambitious new novel is the
actual pro-Nazi mystic Maximiliano Herna´ndez Marti´nez -- 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, Hayde´e Aragon, is a well-off
woman, whose husband is a political prisoner and whose son, Clemente,
after prematurely announcing the dictator's 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 Hayde´e's political awakening in diary entries and Clemente's
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- try's history in the destiny of
one family.