July Book Club Pick: The Adventures of Juan Planchard by Jonathan Jakubowicz.
Right before the Maduro raid in January, an advanced copy of The Adventures of Juan Planchard landed in Elliot Ackerman’s inbox. The novel follows a middle-class nobody who rises through Venezuela’s Chavista government on a wave of violence, drugs, and crime.
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The Free Press Summer Reading List 2026
The Adventures of Juan Planchard was selected by Elliot Ackerman as his contribution to The Free Press Summer Reading List 2026, a collection of recommended books curated by leading writers, journalists, historians, and public intellectuals.
In his recommendation, Ackerman described Jonathan Jakubowicz’s novel as a fast-paced story of corruption, violence, power, and desire set against the backdrop of modern Venezuela.
The recommendation appeared alongside selections from prominent writers and thinkers across literature, history, politics, foreign affairs, and culture.
Elliot’s Recommendation
“It’s also a love story, and Juan Planchard is obsessed with a rapacious blonde-haired blue-eyed American woman who is violence and seduction personified. The author, Jonathan Jakubowicz, is also an award-winning filmmaker, and you can feel that cinematic energy on every page. I read this book in two sittings and will likely read it again over the summer.”
About the Book
The Adventures of Juan Planchard is a fast-paced novel of corruption, power, revolution, and moral compromise. Set against the backdrop of modern Venezuela, it follows Juan Planchard as he turns political chaos into personal fortune, only to find that wealth, desire, and survival carry their own costs.
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Praise for the Book
