A beautifully written meditation on belonging and exile, language and culture, cowardice and loyalty, revolution, tyranny and the idealism of youth. It follows the internationally renowned writer s eventful, nomadic life from birth in Argentina to childhood in New York and adolescence in Chile to the 1973 coup against Allende, when a stroke of luck saved him from death. Heading South, Looking North gives a fascinating insight into McCarthyite America and South America in the 60s, and into Ariel Dorfman s formation as a writer and powerful crusader against political oppression.