I Couldn't Even Imagine That They Would Kill Us ─ An Oral History of the Attacks Against the Students of Ayotzinapa

"In Mexico, John Gibler's book has been recognized as a journalistic masterpiece, an instant classic, and the most powerful indictment available of the devastating state crime committed against the forty-three disappeared Ayotizinapa students in Iguala. This meticulous, choral recreation of the events of that night is brilliantly vivid and alive, it will terrify and inspire you and shatter your heart." —Francisco Goldman, writer for The New Yorker, author of The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle

On September 26, 2014, police in Iguala, Mexico attacked five busloads of students and a soccer team, killing six people and abducting forty-three students—now known as the Iguala 43—who have not been seen since. In a coordinated cover-up of the government's role in the massacre and forced disappearance, Mexican authorities tampered with evidence, tortured detainees, and thwarted international investigations. Within days of the atrocities, John Gibler traveled to the region and began reporting from the scene. Here he weaves the stories of survivors, eyewitnesses, and the parents of the disappeared into a tour de force of journalism, a heartbreaking account of events that reads with the momentum of a novel. A vital counter-narrative to state violence and impunity, the stories also offer a testament of hope from people who continue to demand accountability and justice.

John Gibler is the author of Mexico Unconquered and To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War. His work on Ayotzinapa has been praised in The New Yorker, published in The New York Times and The California Sunday Magazine, and featured on NPR's All Things Considered.