TOMAS ELOY MARTINEZ DIED

The great Argentinian writer Tomas Eloy Martinez died yesterday in Buenos Aires.

When my editor wrote me an e-mail telling me that Tomas Eloy Martinez had died I got goose bumps. He was one of my favorite novelists. He was also a well-known journalist writing for many newspapers. I tried to interview him last year for the Daily News/Hora Hispana after he published "Purgatorio" but I didn't succeed. I didn't know then, that he was not living in New Jersey anymore or teaching at Rutgers University. He was living again in Argentina and he was battling cancer.

His novels are translated into many languages, so i suggest that if you never have read " La Novela de Peron"/ "The Peron Novel" about Domingo Peron or "Santa Evita" about Evita Peron please go ahead and pick up a copy. You will not regret it. You will be immersed in the world of Peronism and Argentina's history by the hand of a great novelist and you won't be able to stop reading.

He met Peron and interviewed him so he used his tapes to create a portrait of a very controversial man who still has a big presence in Argentina.

"Santa Evita" is Evita's life before and after she died. Yes, you will not believe what happened to her body after she died. Sometimes life doesn't seem verosimil. The flames that Evita ignited didn't die with her and when she died her body was robbed and finished in different hands. If you want to know more about the real Evita, not the one in the Broadway show but the human being you have to read it.

Another book I enjoyed is "El Vuelo de la Reina" /"The Flight of the Queen".