Here at last is the first volume in Fidel Castro's long-awaited memoir, a project he has been working on since he retired from public office in 2006. Opening with an extensive chapter on his childhood and youth, this is Fidel Castro's never-before-published account of the guerrilla movement that led to the Cuban revolution in 1959. Besides being a lively and absorbing memoir and the most authoritative history of the period, this is also destined to be a classic of military history. A keen student of great military tacticians, Fidel Castro led three hundred young guerrillas who pitted themselves against General Batista's ten thousand troops that were supported and trained by the United States. Including 270 pages of photos and color maps, as well as facsimiles of key documents, this is an unprecedented source of documentary material. Among some of the most fascinating documents in this book is the unpublished correspondence between Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. This book should be read in conjunction with Che Guevara's memoir of this period:Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War(Ocean Press), on which Steven Soderbergh based the first part of his epic movieChe, starring Benicio del Toro. A must read for those who want to understand Cuba then and now and the fifty-year conflict between the island and its mighty neighbor.