The Shining Path Audiobook By Orin Starn, Miguel La Serna cover art

The Shining Path

Love, Madness, and Revolution in the Andes

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The Shining Path

By: Orin Starn, Miguel La Serna
Narrated by: Robert Fass
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About this listen

On May 17, 1980, on the eve of Peru's presidential election, five masked men stormed a small town in the Andean heartland. They set election ballots ablaze and vanished into the night, but not before planting a red hammer-and-sickle banner in the town square. The lone man arrested the next morning later swore allegiance to a group called Shining Path.

Described by a US State Department cable as "cold-blooded and bestial", Shining Path orchestrated bombings, assassinations, and massacres across the cities, countryside, and jungles of Peru in a murderous campaign to seize power and impose a Communist government. At its helm was the professor-turned-revolutionary Abimael Guzmán, who launched his single-minded insurrection alongside two women: his charismatic young wife, Augusta La Torre, and the formidable Elena Iparraguirre, who married Guzmán soon after Augusta's mysterious death. Their fanatical devotion to an outmoded and dogmatic ideology, and the military's bloody response, led to the death of nearly 70,000 Peruvians.

Orin Starn and Miguel La Serna's narrative history of Shining Path is both panoramic and intimate, set against the socioeconomic upheavals of Peru's rocky transition from military dictatorship to elected democracy.

©2019 Orin Starn and Miguel La Serna (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
20th Century Communism & Socialism History & Theory Revolutions & Wars of Independence South America United States Military
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Editorial Review

The Shining Path group, led by a man and two women, stopped at nothing to gain power. They carried out bombings, assassinations, and massacres across Peru to impose their views and create a communist government. This is a tale about the bravery of the rebels who fought to end the bloodshed and withstood the decade-long reign of terror from the guerrilla movements.
The Shining Path was originally written by Orin Starn and Miguel La Serna. It is a magnificent account of a civil war that affected many lives, even though not many people know or talk about it. Starn is a professor in Duke University’s cultural anthropology department and has written for many years about the history of Peru. His co-author, Miguel La Serna, is an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leading specialist in Peruvian armed conflict. Together, they tell the story of one of the most troubling events in the nation’s history.
Stephen Platt narrates Starn and La Serna’s detailed historical account of the cold-blooded and brutal group. Platt provides clarity and intensity as he highlights the stories of the brave police officers, the journalists, and the rebels who faced this ferocious group and helped bring it to justice after ten years of conflict. The Shining Path audiobook introduces the listener to the mountain villagers and two individuals who fought tirelessly to end the bloodshed. They are the incredible Black activist María Elena Moyano and the Nobel Prize-winning writer Mario Vargas Llosa. —Audible Latino Editor

What listeners say about The Shining Path

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Historically accurate account

I lived though the Shining Path years and this historical narrative of the communist Peruvian revolt is by far the closest to reality that I’ve have read so far.

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I understand now!

Good narration, great content, I’m wiser on the Peruvian political past now. I grew up with a Peruvian mother and uncle, I never knew about Peru before now. Now I understand.

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Excellent book, highly recommend

If you’ve ever been interested in any information/content about the subject of the shining path movement in Peru, this book is comprehensive and very well written. It is definitely a page turner, I am listening to it back a second time ! Great book

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History as drama

I wanted to learn about the history of Shining Path. What I got that was a gripping story that kept me hooked. All history books should aspire to this level of story telling!

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Understanding my wife

I've been married for 20 years with a native Peruvian. It wasn't until this last election did I understand the even she was effected by the Shining Path war. I loved the attention to detail here and the dedication to including the Spanish and Quechua words in the work, and was very impressed by the reader for their pronunciation. Thank you.

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fantastic

rich storytelling and plenty of context for those of us too young to remember

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