The year is 1976. The protagonists are women, writers, guerilla fighters, friends. And as they explore the contradictions of political commitment, and move toward the most shocking reversal in Latin American literature, their story emerges as one of the great narratives of the twentieth century--and The End of the Story as the definitive novel of Argentina's Dirty War.

Liliana Heker is a Jewish-Argentinian author and intellectual, known for her outspoken protests against state violence during the Dirty War of 1976-83. At the time over 30,000 people were "disappeared" by the government, and while many writers and journalists fled the country to escape persecution, Heker remained, and argued the necessity of bearing witness to state atrocities. Made famous at first by the public polemic she had with the great Argentine writer Julio CortAzar (then living in Paris), Heker's short fiction has since been anthologized in over a dozen countries. Her collected stories was released by Alfaguara in 2004. The End of the Story is her second novel to appear in English.

Asher Stone grew up in an idyllic California family. His mother Linda made sure of that. She never wanted her son to feel different from other kids, just because he was adopted. She was a loving, devoted mother, and Asher a happy, healthy boy. So when a life-changin accident causes Asher to question his identity, he suddenly announces that he needs to learn about his roots, Linda is caught off guard. Asher doesn't want to hurt his mother, but something inside him is driving him to find out exactly where he came from. And so he takes off on a journey to Colombia in search of his birth mother.

Interspersed throughout Asher's story is that of his mother's, Rita. Moving back in time we watch as a young Rita begins a clandestine affair with a revolutionary soldier—a guerilla warrior who loved her deeply but couldn't leave the cause to care for her, not if he wanted to keep her safe. Rita is left alone and pregnant, with no support from her family. And though it breaks her heart, she makes the agonizing decision to give up her baby. How can Asher, a young man who has never known hardship understand her decision? Can they have any kind of relationship—and where does that leave Linda if they do?

A journalist and former concert pianist, Leila Cobo is a native of Cali, Colombia. The Executive Director of Latin Content & Programming for Billboard, she is a frequent contributor to NPR. She is also the host of the television show Estudio Billboard, which features in-depth interviews with top Latin acts. Leila is a Fulbright scholar with a graduate degree from the Annenberg School of Communications at USC and holds dual degrees in journalism, from Bogota's Universidad Javeriana, and in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music.