Che: A Revolutionary Life - Hardcover

by Jon Lee Anderson (Author), José Hernández (Illustrator)

"A remarkable accomplishment, one that belongs next to such works of graphical history as the March series and Shigeru Mizuki's Showa books. By foregrounding the tension between myth and truth, Che illuminates the present state of our politics as well as the past." --NPR

The graphic adaptation of the groundbreaking and definitive biography of Che Guevara

Che Guevara's legend is unmatched in the modern world. Since his assassination in 1967 at the age of thirty-nine, the Argentine revolutionary has become an internationally recognized icon, as revered as he is controversial. As a Marxist ideologue who sought to end global inequality by bringing down the American capitalist empire through armed guerrilla warfare, Che has few rivals in the Cold War era as an apostle of revolutionary change. In Che: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández present the man behind the myth, creating a complex and human portrait of this passionate idealist.

Adapted from Jon Lee Anderson's definitive masterwork, Che vividly transports us from young Ernesto's medical school days as a sensitive asthmatic to the battlefields of the Cuban revolution, from his place of power alongside Castro, to his disastrous sojourn in the Congo, and his violent end in Bolivia. Through renowned Mexican artist José Hernández's drawings we feel the bullets wing past the head of the young rebel in Cuba, we smell the thick smoke of his and Castro's cigars, and scrutinize his proud face as he's called "Comandante" for the first time. With astonishing precision, color, and drama, Anderson and Hernández's Che makes us a witness to the revolutionary life and times of Che Guevara.

Author Biography

Jon Lee Anderson is the author of The Fall of Baghdad, Guerrillas, The Lion's Grave, and Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. His reporting led to the discovery of Che's skeletal remains thirty years after their secret burial in Bolivia. He is a New Yorker staff writer, and has reported frequently from Latin America and from war zones around the world. Anderson has written profiles of Augusto Pinochet, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Gabriel García Márquez. He is at work on a book about Fidel Castro and modern Cuba.

José Hernández is a political cartoonist for La Jornada, the weekly Proceso, and the magazine El Chamuco y los hijos del Averno. He is a recipient of el Premio Nacional de Periodismo, the National Journalism Award of Mexico.