Doctor Justo Pastor Proceso López, adored by his female patients but despised by his wife and daughters, has a burning ambition: to prove tothe world that the myth of Simón Bolívar, El Libertador, is a sham and a scandal. In Pasto, south Colombia, where the good doctor plies histrade, the Feast Day of the Holy Innocents is dawning. A day for pranks, jokes and soakings ... Water bombs, poisoned empanaditas, groundglass in the hog roast - anything goes. What better day to commission a float for The Black and White Carnival that will explode the myth of ElLibertador once and for all? One that will lay bare the massacres, betrayals and countless deflowerings that history has forgotten. But inColombia you question the founding fables at your peril. At the frenzied peak of the festivities, drunk on a river of arguardiente, Doctor Justo willdiscover that this year the joke might just be on him. About the AuthorEvelio Rosero studied Social Communication in the Externado University of Colombia. In 2006 he was awarded the Tusquets National Prize for Literature in Colombia for his novel The Armies, which was also the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.