To Save Her Life

📖 The Scoop

"Dan Saxon has written a compelling and provocative book about the checkered history of United States involvement in Guatemala and the politics of human rights activism. Read this book and you will understand why the way in which we respond to human rights crimes often says more about our humanity than the abuses themselves."—Eric Stover, author of The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague

"Dan Saxon's moving portrait of human courage and political interest illuminates the personal struggle of one woman against the broad sweep of Latin American history. It is rare in my experience for one book to offer both page-turning suspense and penetrating analysis of human rights policy. To Save Her Life carries it off brilliantly."—Jim Goldston, The Open Society Justice Initiative, The Open Society Institute

"The massive intrusion of the United States in the government of Guatemala begun in 1954 is the basis for this fascinating story about a woman, Maritza. She was eventually able to emerge from captivity after torture and many humiliations. The author, intimately acquainted with life in Guatemala, tells the story of this woman and her family with humor, excitement and captivating details about the history of Guatemala. For anyone involved in the tragic history of Central America and the evolution of liberation theology, this readable book will be helpful and even indispensable."—Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

"Human rights is a complicated business, and Dan Saxon's book explores many of our complexities in microcosm. Through the story of the campaign to save Maritza's life, Saxon illuminates the muddled U.S. policy in Central America at the end of the cold war; the inter-institutional rivalries and misunderstandings among organizations in the U.S. and Guatemala; and above all, the human caring that motivated so many human rights activists in the 1980s and 1990s. This is a magnificent work of history and humanity."—Patrick Ball, The Benetech Initiative

Genre: History / Latin America / Central America (fancy, right?)