Heading South, Looking North

From the author of Death and the Maiden , this fascinating memoir offers an elegant meditation on language, exile, and memory.

In this remarkable memoir, Dorfman describes an extraordinary life, torn between the United States, South America, and his Jewish heritage, between English and Spanish, between revolution and repression. Interwoven with the story of how Dorfman switched languages and countries--not once, but three times--is a day-to-day account of his multiple escapes from death during Pinochet's military takeover of Chile in 1973. Combining eight vignettes of his life before 1973 with eight scenes from the coup, Dorfman filters these events through an engaging, hybrid consciousness. A beautifully written and deeply moving auto-biography by one of the "greatest living Latin American writers" ( Newsweek ), Heading South, Looking North is at once a vivid account of a life as complex and mysterious as the fictional characters Dorfman has created, and an enthralling search for a permanent home, a political cause, and a cultural identity.

"A fascinating memoir ... intensely personal and often moving."-- The New York Times Book Review .

"Dorfman has written the most universal of stories, a meditation on the fragility and uncertainty of life." -- The Boston Globe