Santiago Roncagliolo. The Fourth Sword. The Story of Abimael Guzmán and Shining Path

After the auspicious reception of Abril rojo (2006) by the public, expectations for a new work from Santiago Roncagliolo are understandable, especially since it addresses the theme that earned him the Premio Alfaguara: political violence. His new book will not disappoint: it is a work that transports us to the center of the spiral of bloodshed and misgovernment that engulfed the country between 1980 and 2000. If in Abril rojo he gave us a thriller whose protagonist was an obscure prosecutor, in La cuarta espada. La historia de Abimael Guzmán y Sendero Luminoso (Buenos Aires, Debate, 2007, 286 pp.), Roncagliolo places himself at the very core of those who initiated the armed struggle: the leader of Sendero Luminoso and his inner circle, now in prison.