Pushkin Press
Leila Guerriero | The Difficult Ghost
9781805333005
28/08/25
PB
160 pages
Translated by Megan McDowell
An incisive, stylish exploration of how Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood and the ethics of storytelling by a star non-fiction writer
‘A gem of a book’ The Times
In 1960, Truman Capote arrived in the small town of Palamós on the Costa Brava.He’d hoped a short break from New York’s social scene would help him finish the book he was writing about two young men convicted of a horrific murder. He wound up staying in Europe for three years of agonising self-exile, wrestling with his haunting material, crafting a masterpiece, and waiting for the event that would allow him to finish it – the execution of those two men.
Following in Capote’s footsteps in Palamós, celebrated journalist Leila Guerriero finds almost no trace of those turbulent years. As she sorts through a jumble of competing local accounts and blatant fabrications, she launches a dazzling enquiry into the curious afterlife of writing – and the dark complexities of turning life into literature.
Reviews
A real gem of a book, offering a brief but valuable contemplation of the curious afterlife of great literature
The Times
Written in Guerriero’s trademark dry, cutting and highly expressive style… Magnificent
El Cultural
Guerriero is one of the masters of the new Latin American journalism. She has invented a new form of writing profiles… The book does not reveal Capote’s life, but it does reveal the myth of Capote in Palamós, and in the end the myth is more important than reality
Zenda