The Shining Path

Vivid, gritty ... and meticulously researched. ... [A] timely reminder of the dangers of inflexible dogma and an important work that belongs in every collection. This history of the Shining Path combines deep archival work, detailed knowledge of the Andes, and bold journalistic intuition. Through brilliant storytelling, the reader witnesses a war that killed thousands through the intimate lives of its protagonists as they travel across the landscapes of Peru.--Marisol de la Cadena, anthropologist, University of California, Davis, and author of Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds A meticulously researched and harrowing account of how a bookish professor and his two (consecutive) wives conceived and orchestrated a brutal Maoist insurrection in the remote Andes of Peru. The authors brilliantly chronicle the triumvirate's meteoric rise and catastrophic fall.--Kim MacQuarrie, author of The Last Days of the Incas and Life and Death in the Andes The Shining Path is the fascinating account of how one man and two women forged a union to create one of the modern world's most extreme insurgencies. Orin Starn and Miguel La Serna have made a remarkable contribution to our historical knowledge about the origins of the Shining Path and have simultaneously produced a compelling page-turner. They deserve high praise for their achievement.--Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life