University of Arizona Press, Date: 2011. Paperback. Good. Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed. 2011. University of Arizona Press ISBN 0816530041 9780816530045 [US]

University of Arizona Press, Date: 2011-09-01. Paperback. Good. 2011. University of Arizona Press ISBN 0816530041 9780816530045 [US]

ISBN10: 0816530041, ISBN13: 9780816530045, [publisher: University of Arizona Press, Tucson] Softcover Paperback. In the border shantytown of Ysleta, Mexican immigrants Pilar and Cuauhtemoc Martinez strive to teach their four children to forsake the drugs and gangs of their neighborhood. The familys hardscrabble origins are just the beginning of this sweeping new novel from Sergio Troncoso. Spanning four decades, this is a story of a familys struggle to become American and yet not be pulled apart by a maelstrom of cultural forces. As a young adult, daughter Julieta is disenchanted with Catholicism and converts to Islam. Youngest son Ismael, always the bookworm, is accepted to Harvard but feels out of place in the Northeast where he meets and marries a Jewish woman. The other boysMarcos and Franciscotoil in their fathers old apartment buildings, serving as the cheap labor to fuel the familys rise to the middle class. Over time, Francisco isolates himself in El Paso while Marcos eventually leaves to become a teacher, but then returns, struggling with a deep bitterness about his work and marriage. Through it all, Pilar clings to the idea of her family and tries to hold it together as her husbands health begins to fail. This backdrop is then shaken to its core by the historic events of 2001 in New York City. The aftermath sends shockwaves through this newly American family. Bitter conflicts erupt between siblings and the physical and cultural spaces between them threaten ...
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