Feeding On Dreams: Confessions Of An Unrepentant Exile

(Paperback)

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Hailed by Salman Rushdie as "one of the most important voices coming out of Latin America", the bestselling author and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman delivers a memoir excavating for the first time his profound and provocative journey as an exile. In September 1973, the military took power in Chile, and Ariel Dorfman, allied to deposed president Salvador Allende, was forced to flee for his life. Feeding on Dreams is the story of the transformative decades of exile that followed. Dorfman portrays, through visceral scenes and powerful intellect, the personal and political maelstroms underlying his migrations from Buenos Aires, on the run from Pinochet's death squads, to safe houses in Paris and Amsterdam, and eventually to America, his childhood home. And then, seventeen years after he was forced to leave, there is a yearned-for return to Chile, with an unimaginable outcome. The toll on Dorfman's wife and two sons, the "earthquake of language" that is bilingualism, and his eventual questioning of his allegiance to past and party - all these crucibles of a life in exile are revealed with wry and startling honesty. Feeding on Dreams is a passionate reminder that "we are all exiles," that we are all "threatened with annihilation if we do not find and celebrate the refuge of common humanity", as Dorfman did during his "decades of loss and resurrection".

Author Bio

Chilean-American author and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman's many internationally acclaimed works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction include his bestselling memoir, Heading South, Looking North, which was the basis for the documentary film A Promise to the Dead, directed by Peter Raymont and shortlisted for the Oscars in 2008. His play Death and the Maiden, staged in over 100 countries, was made into a feature film by Roman Polanski. Dorfman is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York Times Book Review, and Huffington Post.