First published 2005
Patty Hearst becomes Tania after her kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. She declares loyalty to her former captors and adopts their revolutionary rhetoric. When most SLA members die in a Los Angeles police shootout, Tania flees with two survivors: General Teko, a pompous and cruel leader, and Yolanda, his scheming lieutenant. The trio spends sixteen months hiding across America, moving through a world of con artists, dreamers, and cult members. Tania navigates this underground existence while the nation debates her motives. Was she brainwashed or genuinely converted? The fugitives encounter middle-class Americans obsessed with reinventing themselves, reflecting the era's broader tensions between parents and children, tradition and change. Sorrentino follows Tania through this bizarre journey of survival and self-discovery in a fractured country.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, crime, thriller, political-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: America, Los Angeles
Period: 1974
528 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Content warnings: kidnapping, violence