Born in middle-class Urbana, Illinois, Joe Sanderson (1942-82) died fighting with guerillas in Central America. A decade ago, Héctor Tobar came into possession of Sanderson's personal writings, and he crafted them into this novel about the self-proclaimed "road bum" who made a freewheeling course across the known world, to Jamaica, Vietnam, Nigeria, and El Salvador—ending his days in unlikely, anonymous heroism.

"I'm in awe…. Tobar can seemingly do anything as a writer; here he bridges fiction and nonfiction effortlessly."—Jonathan Lethem