What You Have Heard Is True : Penguin Books : 9780241405581 : 0241405580 : 26 Mar 2020 : 'Astonishing, powerful, so important at this time' - Margaret Atwood (on Twitter) 'Riveting . . . intricate and surprising' - The New York Times 'Reading it will change you, perhaps forever' - San Francisco Chronicle An electrifying memoir set in the Salvadoran Civil War: the true story of a young poet who becomes an activist through a trial by fire Carolyn Forché, an American poet, is 27 when a mysterious stranger called Leonel appears on her doorstep, having driven direct from El Salvador. Her friend has heard rumours about who he might be - a communist, a CIA operative, a sharpshooter, a motorcycle racer, a revolutionary, a small coffee farmer - but nobody seems to know for certain. Captivated for reasons she doesn't fully understand, she accepts his invitation to visit and learn about his country, and so becomes enmeshed in the early stages of a brutal civil conflict which will ultimately see