In Itzel II: A Three Knives Tale, we continue to follow Nauta, Itzel and Basta through the cascading outcomes of their desire for agency and for change in themselves and in their world. As we contemplate the range of actions such desire makes them take and the range of emotions it brings, from euphoria to despair, we move from the Oaxaca coast back to Mexico City, from Nauta's Brooklyn streets to her time in Canada, from the attraction between Basta and Itzel that has altered the characters' friendship to the rumours and reckonings that result. The 10th of June, 1971 -- The Halconazo -- when the '68 prisoners are out and the students of Mexico City return to the streets, is brought alive by the author's intimate knowledge of an event that was in part organized by movement friends from her phone. As Nauta continues to measure her Mexican experiences against who she has become, she will see herself once more wielding the knife she has carried since puberty, as she is brought face to face not just with th

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Sarah Murphy has done the undo-able: written, in strange magnificent future-tense prose about events that were kept hidden until 30 years after they?d been perpetrated. We understand the movement that culminated in Tlatelolco and the country that produced it, finally, as we come to understand Nauta, Itzel, Basta and the others who populate this rich and rewarding novel. Is it a novel? Memoir? Who cares? It must be read. -- Margaret Randall, author of Che on My Mind, Haydée Santamaria, Cuban Revolutionary, and Exporting Revolution

The dazzling fluency, the technical virtuosity, the energy and exuberance -- they?re all here. Sarah Murphy is entertaining and reckless and wittily self-conscious about language and story-telling, but make no mistake: She is a literary and political subversive. If you haven?t read her before, hold onto your hat. You are in for a wild ride. -- Ken McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage, Lady Franklin's Revenge, and Flight of the Highlanders

In this audacious