On 28 November 1986, in Valparaiso, the Chilean authorities impounded and burned 15,000 copies of this book. In 1973, a portly, dark-haired, beared film director fled Chile after the military Coup. Twelve years later he returned - slim, fair, clean-shaven - bringing with him a false past and a false wife. Retold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez from eighteen hours of taped interviews, this is the story of Miguel Littin, who risked his freedom to bring the world a truer picture of life under Pinochet.