Bolivian Diary

by Che Guevara (Author), Che Guevara (Author), Lucia Alvarez de Toledo (Translator)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.42

  This book tells of the last doomed eleven months of the most courageous and dedicated revolutionary of the 20th century. First published in Cuba in 1968 in a free edition of 250,000 copies, it has since become a classic. In November 1966 Che Guevara, hero of the Cuban Revolution, arrives in Bolivia to lead a guerrilla detachment fighting that country's military dictatorship. At the beginning of the diary the war games of the guerrillas seem no more real than those of Boy Scouts at play. But then real deaths begin, in flooded rivers or in ambush. The guerrilla fighters win their first battles and outwit the vastly superior army forces sent against them; but, in the end, Che Guevara and his dwindling group are surrounded and crushed. In its terse and simple prose, the Bolivian Diary gives a unique account of the guerrilla's lonely fight against armies, mountains, jungles, hunger, disease and death. And the reader's knowledge of Guevara's fate makes the book even more moving a record of the guerrillas' day-to-day suffering and bravery.

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.28

  With an introduction by Fidel Castro Che Guevara's famous last diary, found in his backpack after he was captured by the Bolivian Army in 1967, and which played a pivotal role in catapulting him to iconic status after his death. In 1967 Che Guevara left Cuba to lead the Bolivian Liberation Army. In the jungles of Bolivia they attempted to initiate a revolution like that in Cuba, in which Che had played such a central role. This fascinating diary describes the troubled guerrilla campaign until Che's final entry on the 7th October 1967 - the day before his capture by the CIA-backed Bolivian Army and his execution. Following the phenomenally successful film adaptation of 'The Motorcycle Diaries', two of Che Guevara's later and most insightful diaries are being brought to the big screen in 2009. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benicio del Toro, 'Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War' and 'The Bolivian Diary' will be released as 'Che Part 1' and 'Che Part 2'.