Paco Ignacio Taibo II

Una Biografia Narrativa

Pancho Villa

Paco Ignacio Taibo

Sintiendo que el campo de batalla

Dias de Combate

a manual for taking power

Calling all heroes

Del robo del Tláloc a los amores de El Ratón y el Rayo Láser; de Hammett persiguiendo la cabeza de Pancho Villa al Misterio de la Araña; del narco túnel que conecta Juárez con Disneylandia a las maldades de un enano salinista en España; de un grupo de apaches urbanos que organizan huelgas a las aventuras de Máscara Azteca, y de doña Eustolia armada con un cuchillo cebollero a las manos apestosas de un pistolero de la judicial, estas 35 narraciones escritas a lo largo de cuarenta años y reunidas por primera vez en este asombroso volumen son, sin duda, una fiesta para los lectores.

Cuentos Incompletos

Ombre de l'ombre

La vie même

On the night of October 2, 1968, there occurred a bloody showdown between student demonstrators and the Mexican government in Tlatelolco Square. At least two hundred students were shot dead and many more were detained. Then the bodies were trucked out, the cobblestones were washed clean. Detainees were held without recourse until 1971. Official denial of the killing continues even today: In the first week of February 2003, Mexico's Education Secretary Reyes Tamiz ordered a new history textbook that mentions the massacre-Claudia Sierra's History of Mexico: An Analytical Approach-removed from shelves and classrooms. (Public outcry led Tamiz to reverse his decision days later.) No one has yet been held accountable for the official acts of savagery. With provocative, anecdotal, and analytical prose, Taibo claims for history "one more of the many unredeemed and sleepless ghosts that live in our lands."

El portugués Yáñez de Gomara y el príncipe malayo Sandokán ven en peligro sus bienes, sus vidas y las de sus amigos cuando son atacados por una extraña fuerza maligna que aparece rodeada de niebla verde, perros que no lo son, asesinatos masivos, rumores... Los viejos piratas libertarios se ven obligados a abandonar el retiro y convocar nuevamente a los Tigres de la Malasia para iniciar un combativo descenso a los infiernos. Por las siguientes páginas pasarán: Federico Engels, un yate aparentemente inocente pero repleto de cañones llamado La Mentirosa, el Doctor Moriarty, submarinos, sociedades secretas chinas, Rudyard Kipling, el casino de Goa y los prostíbulos de Cambodia, enmascarados de plata que algún día fueron a un music hall en Berlín, la invención del retrete, los orangutanes de Borneo, traficantes de esclavos, una superviviente de la Comuna de París, aventureros internacionales de las finanzas, santones fundamentalistas musulmanes, Old Shatterhand, el personaje más famoso de las novelas de vaqueros de Karl May, aerostatos, lingüistas griegos, flotas de guerra británicas, filósofos estoicos, plantas carnívoras, mensajes cifrados, banqueros filipinos amigos de José Martí, espías antiimperialistas y una versión dayaka del Hombre Ilustrado.

El retorno de los Tigres de la Malasia

Doña Eustolia blandió el cuchillo cebollero y otras historias

Un asesino que estrangula mujeres anda suelto por la Ciudad de México. Héctor Belascoarán Shayne es un joven ingeniero que a sus treinta y un años ha decidido jubilarse para convierte en un singular detective independiente. Sin embargo, su nueva vida no ha resultado como él esperaba: está quebrado, comparte su oficina con un plomero y no consigue clientes. Entonces decide lanzarse a una de las más extrañas cacerías que se hayan conocido para detener al infame criminal. Sus únicas pistas para descifrar estas muertes atroces son unas notas que aparecen en los cadáveres firmadas bajo el seudónimo de «Cerevro». Una novela poderosa, evocadora y sugerente. Con Días de combate se inicia la serie de aventuras del detective Belascoarán Shayne, el clásico investigador privado de la nueva literatura policiaca mexicana.

Días de combate

Algo podrido se respira en la ciudad de México: la corrupción y la muerte andan sueltas y Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, ingeniero autojubilado y reconvertido en singular detective independiente, se lanza a resolver los casos más variados y plagados de singulares personajes. Una actriz que desaparece en la frontera norte; policías, gangstercillos y una banda de asaltabancos pelean por hincarle el diente a una fortuna en dinero negro, caída accidentalmente en manos de una joven viuda; un dirigente magisterial es acusado del asesinato de un personaje que ha sido visto emborrachándose con policías y caciques; un estrangulador serial de mujeres que firma sus crímenes como Cerevro; la muerte de un viejo campeón de la lucha libre, el rescate del pectoral de Moctezuma robado por la ex amante ranchera de un ex presidente, y otras historias donde se entremezclan el suspenso y el humor. Una forma de ver y entender a la ciudad más grande del mundo y probablemente una de las más corruptas. Todo Belascoarán está conformado por Días de combate, Cosa fácil, Algunas nubes, No habrá final feliz, Regreso a la misma ciudad y bajo la lluvia, Amorosos fantasmas, Sueños de frontera, Desvanecidos difuntos y Adiós, Madrid; un homenaje que reúne las historias del detective más conocido de la narrativa policiaca mexicana.

La serie completa de Héctor Beloascarán Shayne

Todo Belascoarán

Paco Ignacio

The Shadow of the Shadow follows four men who meet to play dominos in a hotel bar in Mexico City in 1922. They are a motley group a gun-toting poet who makes a living writing advertisements for patent medicine, a radical Chinese-Mexican union organizer, a lawyer who represents prostitutes, and a newspaper crime reporter who churns out pages of copy like links of sausage in a chorizo factory. Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza's presidency in their own quietly besotted fashion, ignoring the betrayal of the Mexican Revolution. But they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists. Critics have hailed The Shadow of the Shadow as the best of Paco Ignacio Taibo IIs historical novels. Issues of oil, American imperialism, extortion, and government corruption give the novel a distinctly contemporary ring.

The Shadow of the Shadow

Mexiko 1922: Der Journalist Pioquinto Manterola, der Chinese Tomás Wong, der Dichter Fermín Valencia und der Anwalt Alberto Verdugo geraten durch Zufall einem Komplott von Armeegenerälen, Ölförderfirmen und US-Senatoren auf die Spur. Eine wilde Hetzjagd beginnt. Taibos Roman erweckt die frühen 1920er Jahre in Mexiko zum Leben, brodelnde Jahre des Übergangs, in denen der Geist Zapatas und Villas noch spürbar ist und streikende Arbeiter, Anarchisten und Gewerkschafter gegen korrupte Politiker, machthungrige Offiziere und Pistoleros kämpfen. Einmal mehr erweist sich der Autor als Chronist der Stadt Mexiko, jener turbulenten und chaotischen Metropole, in der sich das Reale mit dem Irrealen vermischt.

Der Schatten des Schattens

Mit einem Nachwort von Thomas Wörtche. Über das Buch: Die Journalisten Greg und Julio wollen vierhändig den großen Revolutionsroman des 20.Jahrhunderts schreiben – aber ehe es sich die beiden komischen und traurigen Romantiker versehen, sind sie in einer ultrageheimen Operation eines ultrageheimen US-Geheimdienstes gelandet, der so geheim ist, dass er selbst noch nicht einmal weiß, dass es ihn gibt. Nur sein Name ist bekannt: SD, das Shit Department. Da darf es auch niemanden wundern, wenn Leo Trotzki als Kriminalautor auftritt, außerdem Stan Laurel und Houdini, Sandokan und Max Klee. In seinem Opus magnum verschmilzt Paco Ignacio Taibo II Triviales, Revolutionslegenden, Mythen des Alltags und harte Realitäten zu einem vergnüglichen, spannenden und bunt glitzernden Monumentalpuzzle von literarischem Rang.

Vier Hände. Kriminalroman

Mexico City independent detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne is summoned back home from vacation by his sister, whose childhood friend Anita has been raped and nearly killed by unknown assailants. Héctor soon discovers that Anita, recently married into the wealthy Costa family, has just seen her husband and his two brothers systematically murdered. Now, Anita stands in line to receive a legacy of some 200 million pesos if she can stay alive long enough to receive it. During his investigation, Héctor trades stories with novelist Paco Ignacio (who bears no little resemblance to Taibo), who is writing a crime novel based upon the recent murder of fourteen narcotraficantes and has traced the crime directly back to Judicial Police Commander Saavedra. Taibo weaves these two seemingly disparate threads together into a novel that stretches the boundaries of the crime genre and poses the question: how does a detective operate in a society in which the social and political institutions designed to protect the people are hopelessly corrupt?

A Héctor Belascoarán Shayne Detective Novel

Some Clouds

Cuatro manos

On June 23rd, 1914, the legendary División del Norte, commanded by General Francisco “Pancho” Villa, defeated the forces of then-president Victoriano Huerta and took the city of Zacatecas. After the decisive battle, the federales were unable to recover. The path to Mexico City—and ultimate victory—was clear for Villa and the revolutionaries. As Colonel Montejo, the narrator of Paco Taibo’s epic tale, says, “We broke their spine in Zacatecas. The rest was just a march south.” In this remarkable graphic novel, Paco Ignacio Taibo II (a.k.a. PIT)—the prolific historian, biographer of Che Guevara and Pancho Villa, as well as the founder of Mexican neopolicial fiction—brings his tremendous storytelling skills to bear, united with stunning illustrations by the artist Eko that evoke traditional Day of the Dead imagery and the etchings of legendary Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada. Pancho Villa Takes Zacatecas not only depicts one of the most decisive moments of the revolution, it also profiles, in glorified action, one of the most beloved heroes of contemporary Mexico. Now translated into English and seamlessly adapted to ebook format, Pancho Villa Takes Zacatecas is an unforgettable paean to the dramatic story of the Mexican Revolution that will fascinate history buffs, avid readers, and graphic novel enthusiasts alike. Praise for Pancho Villa Takes Zacatecas "Like never before, maverick Mexican novelist, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, and visual virtuoso, Eko, bring to kinetic life a pivotal moment in Villa’s against-the-odds, David-Goliath battles with sitting oppressors—one that returned the power to the Mexican people. Extraordinarily energetic woodcut-art and a nimble narrative voice make this history showing and telling at its best!" —Frederick Luis Aldama, author of Your Brain on Latino Comics. “It’s impossible to review [Taibo II’s] literary work without painting an ideological portrait. He’s probably the writer on the left with the proudest lineage of all those I’ve read.” —Christopher Domínguez Michael, Letras Libres “Eko is in many ways a Renaissance artist who through archetypical characters and his work showing them to us recovers the essence (and drives) of humanity, and he shows them without objection.” —Jorge Rueda, Replicante Paco Ignacio Taibo II, or PIT, was born in Gijón, Spain in 1949, before fleeing Franco’s dictatorship with his family in 1958. He has resided in Mexico City ever since, where he’s built a career as a writer, journalist, historian, biographer of Pancho Villa and Che Guevara, and, perhaps most crucially, a founder of the neopolicial fiction genre in Latin America. His books have been published in 29 countries and translated into nearly as many languages. In addition to being a prolific writer, he is an active member of the international crime writing community and organizes Semana Negra or “Noir Week” in his native Gijón. He has won the Latin American Dashiell Hammett Prize three times, as well as the Mexican Premio Planeta, and several other awards for international crime fiction. Eko, born in Mexico in 1958, is a cartoonist, engraver, and painter. His wood etchings, often erotic in nature and the focus of controversial discussion, are part of a broader tradition in Mexican folk art popularized by José Guadalupe Posada. He has collaborated on projects for The New York Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Spanish daily El País, in addition to having published numerous books in Mexico and Spain. Nina Arazoza is a recent graduate of Tufts University’s International Relations Program and an aspiring translator and publishing professional. Her enthusiasm for Latin American culture, history, and politics led her to Restless Books and Pancho Villa Takes Zacatecas.

Pancho Villa Takes Zacatecas

The euphoric idealism of grassroots reform and the tragic reality of revolutionary failure are at the center of this speculative novel that opens with a real historical event. On October 2, 1968, 10 days before the Summer Olympics in Mexico, the Mexican government responds to a student demonstration in Tlatelolco by firing into the crowd, killing more than 200 students and civilians and wounding hundreds more. The Tlatelolco massacre was erased from the official record as easily as authorities washing the blood from the streets, and no one was ever held accountable. It is two years later and Nestor, a journalist and participant in the fateful events, lies recovering in the hospital from a knife wound. His fevered imagination leads him in the collection of facts and memories of the movement and its assassination in the company of figures from his childhood. Nestor calls on the heroes of his youth—Sherlock Holmes, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and D’Artagnan among them—to join him in launching a new reform movement conceived by his intensely active imagination.

A Manual for Taking Power

Calling All Heroes

Set amidst the political turbulence and social unrest of contemporary Mexico City, An Easy Thing introduces English-speaking readers to Taibo’s human and world-weary protagonist, independent detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne. In this debut outing, our hero, who, incidentally, possesses an insatiable appetite for Coca Cola and cigarettes, tackles three cases simultaneously: a killing in a corrupt factory; the deadly threats against a former porn starlet’s teenage daughter; and, strangely, the search for Emiliano Zapata, folk hero and leader of the Mexican Revolution, rumored to be alive and hiding out in a cave outside Mexico City. Combining black comedy, social history and a touch of surrealism, Paco Taibo’s wonderfully idiosyncratic detective novels are admired the world over and are particularly popular in Europe and in the Spanish-speaking world.

Paco Ignacio Taibo II

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