The Uncomfortable Dead

A stylized reissue—featuring bonus materials, including an interview with Subcomandante Marcos by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.In alternating chapters, Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos and the consistently excellent Paco Ignacio Taibo II create an uproarious murder mystery with two intersecting storylines. The chapters written by the famously masked Marcos originate in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico. There, the fictional "Subcomandante Marcos" assigns Elias Contreras—an odd but charming mountain man—to travel to Mexico City in search of an elusive and hideous murderer named "Morales." The second story line, penned by Taibo, stars his famous series detective Hector Belascoaran Shayne. The two stories collide absurdly and dramatically in the urban sprawl of Mexico City . . . Readers expecting political heavy-handedness will be disarmed by the humility and playful self-mocking that runs throughout the book.