Jon Lee Anderson – författare

With unprecedented access to the Cuban Government's archives and total co-operation from Che's widow, Aleida March, as well as access to hitherto unpublished documents, including several of Che's personal diaries, this biography of one of history's most fascinating figures by critically-acclaimed New York Times journalist Jon Lee Anderson is truly definitive and monumental - not least because its creation solved a twenty-eight-year-old mystery: the whereabouts of Che Guevara's body...'Masterly and absorbing' -- The Sunday Times'Brilliantly evoked... The portrait is now as complete as it will ever be' -- The Times Literary Supplement'Absorbing and convincing... an indispensable work of contemporary history' ? Guardian'Probably the best biography I have read' -- ***** Reader review'It's hard to imagine that this work can be bettered' -- ***** Reader review'Simply outstanding' -- ***** Reader review'A terrific read and genuinely the type of book you can't put down after you start reading......' -- ***** Reader review***************************************************************A myth in his own lifetime; an international martyr-figure upon his death; a revolutionary fighter; a military strategist; a social philosopher; an economist; a medical doctor; a friend and confidant of Fidel Castro.Che Guevara's dream was an epic one - to unite Latin America and the rest of the developing world through armed revolution, and to end once and for all the poverty, injustice and petty nationalisms that had bled it for centuries. In the end Che failed in his quest but he is recognized as that one-in-a-million personality who just might have pulled it off.Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life shuttles between the revolutionary capitals of Havana and Algiers to the battlegrounds of Bolivia and the Congo; from the halls of power in Moscow and Washington to the exile havens of Miami, Mexico and Guatemala, in a gripping tale of revolution, international intrigue and covert operations. It has an epic sweep as it evokes an era of tumultuous change, describing major events like the Bay of Pigs invasion, the October Missile crisis and Kennedy's assassination, weaving in a cast of historic personalities including Castro, Kennedy, Kruschev, Mao Tse-tung, Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.With its painstaking research, never-before-seen documentation and compelling narrative, this is really the ultimate biography of a unique man.

Che Guevara's legend is unmatched in the modern world. Since his assassination in 1967 at the age of 39, the Argentine revolutionary has become an internationally famed icon, as revered as he is controversial. A Marxist ideologue, he sought to end global inequality by bringing down the American capitalist empire through armed guerrilla warfare - and has few rivals in the Cold War era as an apostle of change. In Che: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández reveal the man behind the myth, creating a complex portrait of this passionate idealist. Adapted from Anderson's masterwork, Che transports us from young Ernesto's medical school days 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 fly past in Cuba; smell the smoke of Castro's cigars; and scrutinize the face of the weary guerrilla as he is called 'Comandante' for the first time. With astonishing precision, colour, and drama, Che makes us first-hand witnesses to the revolutionary life and times of this historic figure. Combining Anderson's unprecedented access and research with Hernández's emotionally gripping artwork, Che resurrects the man for a new generation of readers.

Jon Lee Anderson first reported from Afghanistan in the late 1980s, covering the US-backed mujahideen’s insurrection against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul. Within days of the 9/11 attacks, he was again on the ground as an early eyewitness to the new war launched by the US against the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. At the time, the American military had prevailed on the battlefield, and the newfound peace seemed to offer a precious space for Afghan society to restore itself and to forge a democratic future. But all was not well: Osama bin Laden was still in hiding, the Taliban were stealthily reorganizing for a comeback, and the United States was about to turn its attention to Iraq. To Lose a War collects Anderson’s writing from Afghanistan over a near-quarter-century span, offering a chronological account of a monumental tragedy as it unfolds. The colossal waste, missed signals, and wishful thinking that characterized the twenty-year arc of the US-led war in Afghanistan have consecrated it as one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the modern era, and a bellwether of a larger American imperial decline.