By confronting the sensations and chaos of the world as opposed to themes of silence and withdrawal, Pablo Neruda, the most accomplished poet from Spanish-speaking America in modern times, created an exciting new style that influenced poetry worldwide. This biography by his long-time friend (for one of whose books Neruda once wrote a flattering preface) is similarly exciting, chronicling his life from the death of his tubercular schoolteacher mother and his subsequent singular good fortune of having a loving stepmother to the grotesque ransacking of his homes in the wake of his death. The translation is good and preserves throughout the historical present; thus, the coup of September 11, 1973 "takes place" immediately before Neruda's death from prostate cancer while the jackals of fascism are feasting on the corpse of his beloved Chile. Especially valuable for public libraries.