Praise for The Last Great Road Bum
“Héctor Tobar uses every method at his disposal to encircle the facts of the ‘conspicuous gringo’ whose archive landed in his lap. I’m in awe of the results, an alchemical amalgam of tender portraiture and illuminating context, with a voice full of riffs and references, and charming as hell. Tobar can seemingly do anything as a writer; here he bridges fiction and nonfiction effortlessly.” —Jonathan Lethem
“Tobar’s stunning follow-up to Deep Down Dark draws from the unbelievable true story of Joe Sanderson, a peripatetic would-be-writer who left a comfortable existence in Urbana, Ill., in order to travel the world in search of material for a great American novel. Instead, he found romance, danger, and the dark heart of the mid-20th century…Tobar brilliantly succeeds in capturing Joe’s guileless yearning for adventure through high-velocity prose that is both relentless and wry.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“The vividly realized particulars of [Joe Sanderson’s] restless journeys are offered in Tobar’s remarkable novelization of Sanderson’s real life, his adventures and misadventures…. His life itself has inspired what is inarguably a great novel, a tribute to him that is beautifully written and spectacularly imagined. Tobar writes that it took him 11 years to complete this wonderful book. Readers will rejoice that he persisted.”
—Booklist, starred review
“The speed and respect and sensitivity with which Tobar can encapsulate a life is dazzling…The novel muses on who gets to tell stories as it probes the lines between myth and reality. This is first rate storytelling from a writer who deepens the sky with every book he writes.” —John Freeman, Lit Hub Summer Preview
Praise for Héctor Tobar
“A riveting story…[but] why it’s an extraordinary book is because of Héctor Tobar’s writing, which is so beautiful and so thoughtful that he’s taking on all of the big issues of life: what is life worth, what is the value of one human life, what is faith, who do we become in our darkest hour? He really brings this story to a level that I don’t feel anyone else could have done . . . It’s the best book of the year.” —Ann Patchett, NPR’s Morning Edition on Deep Down Dark
“Hector Tobar’s The Tattooed Soldier brings the enmities of the Guatemalan civil war to the L.A. riots.” —Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times on The Tattooed Soldier
“[Tobar] succeeds in bringing into focus both the civil turmoil that racks Guatemala and the inner turmoil that can consume people anywhere.” —People, on The Tattooed Soldier
“A triumph . . . Crosswires de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America with Che Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries.” —Steve Erickson, New York Times Book Review, on Translation Nation
“A book of extraordinary scope and extraordinary power.” –Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times, on Barbarian Nurseries
“[Tobar] exhibits a seismographic sensitivity to the tensions along the fault lines of his cultural terrain . . . His illuminations become our recognitions.” –Rebecca Donner, The New York Times Book Review, on Barbarian Nurseries
“Both timely and timeless . . . Tobar continually creates moments of uncommon magic.” –-Elle, on Barbarian Nurseries