"In Urrea's exuberant new novel of Mexican-American life, 70-year-old patriarch Big Angel de la Cruz is dying, and he wants to have one last birthday blowout. Unfortunately, his 100-year-old mother, America, dies the week of his party, so funeral and birthday are celebrated one day apart. The entire contentious, riotous de la Cruz clan descends on San Diego for the events--"High rollers and college students, prison veternaos and welfare mothers, happy...

The celebrated author of "The House on Mango Street" delivers an extraordinary new novel, told in language of blazing originality: a multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family whose voices create a dazzling weave of humor, passion, and poignancy--the very stuff of life.

"L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and all Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants is a little rain. He's harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters--Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude; Olivia,...

"The first time she left Freedom, Kansas, behind, she did it by doing everything right. This time, she'll hide from the large Mexican American family welcoming her home and work in secret to break the curse that's erased her magical life. Only by doing it all wrong can Gillian get herself and her two children away from the ghosts of her hometown by summer's end. Nicky Mendoza is an answer to her prayers. He was the practical solution to the problem...

"La Madre de Efrén Nava es su Superwoman, a Soperwoman, llamada asi por los deliciosos sopes mexicanos que suele preparar. Su amá y su apá trabajan duro todo el día para mantener a la familia, asegurándose de que Efrén y sus hermanos menores, Max y Mía, se sientan seguros y queridos. Pero Efrén se preocupa por sus padres. Aunque nació en Estados Unidos, sus padres son indocumentados. Su peor pesadilla se vuelve realidad cuando su amá no...

"The Casagrandes' family run mercado has been a staple in their bustling Great Lakes City neighborhood for years. But when the mercado's stock keeps mysteriously disappearing overnight, it seems that it's time for the mercado to close down. Why is all the broccoli soup missing? Who would ever take that? And how come all the regular customers look so tired?"-- From publisher's description.