The Tattooed Soldier: A Novel [Paperback]

Antonio Bernal is a Guatemalan refugee in Los Angeles haunted by memories of his wife and child, who were murdered at the hands of a man marked with yellow ink. In a park near Antonio's apartment, Guillermo Longoria extends his arm and reveals a sinister tattooyellow pelt, black spots, red mouth. It is the sign of the death squad, the Jaguar Battalion of the Guatemalan army.

This chance encounter between Antonio and his family's killer ignites a psychological showdown between these two men. Each will discover that the war in Central America has migrated with them as they are engulfed by the quemazones the great burning of the Los Angeles riots. A tragic tale of loss and destiny in the underbelly of an American city,The Tattooed Soldieris Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter H?ctor Tobar's mesmerizing exploration of violence and the marks it leaves upon us.

Tobar succeeds in bringing into focus both the civil turmoil that racks Guatemala and the inner turmoil that can consume people anywhere. People

Suspenseful...Tobar has a fine storyteller's instinct and moves his characters towards the climax with the skill of a chess master. Los Angeles Times

[The Tattooed Soldier] casts a subtle light on the Third World terror which lies behind the faces of people on the pavements and in the parks of Los Angeles....Dazzling. Thomas Keneally

H?ctor Tobar's accomplished first novel affords a perspective that is overdue and urgently needed in North American literature--an insider's vision of L.A. as a Third World city.ThlĂ&