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Where we come from / Oscar Cásares.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2019Edition: First editionDescription: 256 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780525655435
  • 0525655433
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: "From the acclaimed author Brownsville and Amigoland--a stunning and timely new novel about a Mexican-American family in a Texas border town who reluctantly become involved in smuggling immigrants into the United States. Brownsville, Texas, has a dangerous reputation: it sits on the U.S. side of the bridge into Matamoros, Mexico, a city controlled by notorious cartels. But that isn't why 12-year-old Orly doesn't want to visit. Though he's still grieving the death of his mother, his father, Victor, is making him spend the summer in Brownsville with his godmother, Nina. Now a successful ad executive in Houston, Victor was raised in Brownsville and thinks it will do Orly good to know about his less-privileged roots. But Nina, distracted by having to care for her elderly mother, seems only to have rules for Orly. In particular: Don't go near the back house. . . Nina has spent her own life following rules and sacrificing her own desires for others' needs. But when a single act of kindness toward her desperate Mexican cleaning lady begins to spiral out of control, Nina risks exposure from all sides--not only from her curious godson and her controlling brother, but from ruthless human traffickers and the police. Now, Nina will have to face the secrets she's long kept if she has any hope of helping the people suddenly under her care. Tackling the crisis of U.S. immigration policy from an unusual, deeply humane angle, Where We Come From explores the ways that family history shapes us, how secrets can burden us, and how finding compassion and understanding for others can ultimately set us free"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction Casares, Oscar Available 33111009530896
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A stunning and timely novel about a Mexican-American family in Brownsville, Texas, that reluctantly becomes involved in smuggling immigrants into the United States.

From a distance, the towns along the U.S.-Mexican border have dangerous reputations--on one side, drug cartels; on the other, zealous border patrol agents--and Brownsville is no different. But to twelve-year-old Orly, it's simply where his godmother Nina lives--and where he is being forced to stay the summer after his mother's sudden death.

For Nina, Brownsville is where she grew up, where she lost her first and only love, and where she stayed as her relatives moved away and her neighborhood deteriorated. It's the place where she has buried all her secrets--and now she has another: she's providing refuge for a young immigrant boy named Daniel, for whom traveling to America has meant trading one set of dangers for another.

Separated from the violent human traffickers who brought him across the border and pursued by the authorities, Daniel must stay completely hidden. But Orly's arrival threatens to put them all at risk of exposure.

Tackling the crisis of U.S. immigration policy from a deeply human angle, Where We Come From explores through an intimate lens the ways that family history shapes us, how secrets can burden us, and how finding compassion and understanding for others can ultimately set us free.

"Borzoi books."

"From the acclaimed author Brownsville and Amigoland--a stunning and timely new novel about a Mexican-American family in a Texas border town who reluctantly become involved in smuggling immigrants into the United States. Brownsville, Texas, has a dangerous reputation: it sits on the U.S. side of the bridge into Matamoros, Mexico, a city controlled by notorious cartels. But that isn't why 12-year-old Orly doesn't want to visit. Though he's still grieving the death of his mother, his father, Victor, is making him spend the summer in Brownsville with his godmother, Nina. Now a successful ad executive in Houston, Victor was raised in Brownsville and thinks it will do Orly good to know about his less-privileged roots. But Nina, distracted by having to care for her elderly mother, seems only to have rules for Orly. In particular: Don't go near the back house. . . Nina has spent her own life following rules and sacrificing her own desires for others' needs. But when a single act of kindness toward her desperate Mexican cleaning lady begins to spiral out of control, Nina risks exposure from all sides--not only from her curious godson and her controlling brother, but from ruthless human traffickers and the police. Now, Nina will have to face the secrets she's long kept if she has any hope of helping the people suddenly under her care. Tackling the crisis of U.S. immigration policy from an unusual, deeply humane angle, Where We Come From explores the ways that family history shapes us, how secrets can burden us, and how finding compassion and understanding for others can ultimately set us free"-- Provided by publisher.

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