The Tattooed Soldier

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Hector Tobar's debut novel is a tragic tale of destiny and consequence set in downtown Los Angeles on the eve of the 1992 riots. Antonio Bernal is a Guatemalan refugee haunted by memories of his wife and child murdered at the hands of a man marked with a yellow tattoo. Not far from Antonio's apartment, Guillermo Longoria extends his arm and reveals a tattoo--yellow pelt, black spots, red mouth. It is the mark of the death squad, the Jaguar Battalion of the Guatemalan army. A chance encounter ignites a psychological showdown between these two men who discover that the war in Central America has followed them to the quemazones, the "great burning" of the Los Angeles riots."A suspenseful novel . . . Tobar has a fine storyteller's instinct and moves his characters toward the climax with the skill of a chess master." --Los Angeles Times"A chilling revenge story." --People"An important and unusual contribution to the Latin experience in American literature." --Newsday Finalist for a 1999 PEN Center USA West Award