Amigoland
By Oscar Casares
(Little, Brown and Company, Hardcover, 9780316159692, 368pp.)
Publication Date: August 2009
Other Editions of This Title: Paperback, Hardcover
Categories: General
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In a small town on the Mexican border live two brothers, Don Fidencio and Don Celestino. Stubborn and independent, they now must face the facts: they are old, and they have let a family argument stand between them for too long. Don Celestino's good-natured housekeeper encourages him to make amends--while he still can. They secretly liberate Don Fidencio from his nursing home and travel into Mexico to solve the mystery at the heart of their dispute: the family legend of their grandfather's kidnapping. As the unlikely trio travels, the brothers learn it's never too late for a new beginning.
With winsome prose and heartfelt humor, Oscar Casares's debut novel of family lost and found radiates with generosity and grace and confirms the arrival of a uniquely talented new writer.
Oscar Casares was born in the border town of Brownsville, Texas, the setting for his critically acclaimed story collection. The recipient of a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, Casares is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and now teaches creative writing at the University of Texas in Austin, where he lives with his wife and young son. This is his first novel.
"A winning novel...It's plain to see how love, borders, death-and most of all, willful ignorance-are part of everyday reawakenings. With Casares' blessing, you can laugh at them all."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Oscar Casares' AMIGOLAND, his first novel and a follow-up to his much-acclaimed book of short stories, Brownsville, is a liberating journey full of warmth and color....The group's impromptu trip to Mexico feels like a refreshing, rejuvenating trip for the reader as well as the characters. And the ending? Bittersweet, unexpected and undeniably precious. All told, AMIGOLAND is full of new friends and makes for perfect summer reading."
-Bookpage
"Knowing, touching and true."
-Kirkus (starred review)
"By turns hilarious and heart-breaking, this story of two feisty, aging brothers and their bumpy road trip to the past is a delightful romp. Think "Sunshine Boys" go south of the border, but funnier, much funnier, and infinitely more poignant."
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