Bücher von Earl Shorris

In the central Yucatan a group of Maya Indian workers revolt against the corrupt oligarchy of government, business, the official union, and the press. Two young men-a traditional Maya leader and a Mexican-American lawyer-are drawn into ever deeper commitment to the struggle. When they are caught in a trap and thrown into jail, the lawyer declares a hunger strike. The story of the Maya workers, and of their village, is narrated in a series of vivid flashbacks that alternate with the grim deprivations and interrogations in the prison. Day by day, the young lawyer approaches death, and in his discussions with his friend and cell mate, there emerge two different definitions of love, loyalty, and courage, each man's version determined by the culture from which he springs. One of the chief delights of this rich, intense storytelling is the introduction it provides to the Maya understanding of time, medicine, and proper behavior. Although everything that happens in the novel could have appeared in the latest news stories out of Mexico, nothing happens quite as expected, and the startling conclusion could only have taken place in the Yucatan.

"Brilliant.... A loving and detailed celebration of a diverse, beautiful and often astounding people."-Laurence Gonzales, Chicago Tribune

Told from the point of view of an ancient shaman, this is the dark and mystical story of Mexico's greatest revolutionary general, Pancho Villa. Shedding the Hollywood mantle of the drunken, womanizing bandit-turned-hero, the Villa who comes to life in this extraordinary novel is part man and part myth, part visionary hoodlum and part brilliant general.A troubled childhood--marked by his father's early death in the fields and his sister's rape by a local landowner--and a prophetic dream propel young Villa through a period of lawlessness and drifting and into life as a military leader. The story moves convincingly through the events of Villa's life, showing him to be a man of fierce passions and moral conviction, a natural leader for the rebellion.

"You've been cheated," Earl Shorris tells a classroom of poor people in New York City.

If Adam is the archetype of man, and Eve of woman, then the serpent who sold the apple to Eve in the Garden of Eden was the first salesman: all culture and commerce flow from that act.