The Bullet Swallower
Elizabeth Gonzalez James
Elizabeth Gonzalez James’s eagerly anticipated novel is a wild ride through several generations of the Sonoro family. It has been described as “One Hundred Years of Solitude meets Lonesome Dove.” Based loosely on her own great-grandfather’s life story, this ambitious novel explores intergenerational trauma, the land and people on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, and the nature of crime and revenge. This genre-defying novel dazzles with rich prose, vivid characters, gripping action, and magical realism.
Redwood Court
DéLana R. A. Dameron
Poet DéLana Dameron makes her fiction debut with this novel of an unforgettable Southern Black family, as seen through the eyes of young Mika, growing up in Columbia, South Carolina in the 1990s. The book shifts to several other points of view to encompass the story of an evolving family and nation and what it means to chase the American Dream. As a prize-winning poet, Dameron knows how to mine the language and culture to put a new, lyrical spin on the standard coming-of-age story and questions of identity and belonging on an intimate, human level.
Nopalito, Texas: Stories
David Meischen
The University of New Mexico Press just released this debut collection of Albuqueque writer and Pushcart Prize winner David Meischen’s interconnected stories set in the fictional town of Nopalito, Texas. Meischen is originally from South Texas, so he is well attuned to the longings bubbling under the lives of people in this small town, and brings their stories full circle with compassion, wit, and poignancy, packing many years of many lives into a relatively slim 244 pages.