The book addresses different aspects of the work and life of the late Marxist Peruvian historian Alberto Flores Galindo (1949–1990), including his role as a public intellectual, his views about Peruvian independence, his interpretations of political violence in the 1980s, his relationship with the Cuban revolution, and the way in which his passion for literature infused his work as a historian.

Carlos Aguirre is a professor of history specializing in the history of modern Peru and Latin America. He has written extensively on the history of slavery and abolition, crime and punishment, political imprisonment, intellectuals, print culture, and archives.