Luis Alberto Urrea

Luis Alberto Urrea was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his landmark work of nonfiction The Devil’s Highway. He’s also the bestselling author of the novels The Hummingbird’s Daughter, Into the Beautiful North, and Queen of America, as well as the story collection The Water Museum. In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly one hundred, dies, transforming the weekend into a farewell doubleheader. Among the guests is Big Angel’s half-brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life. The House of Broken Angels (Back Bay Books) tells the story of two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, as the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother. “All we do, mija, is love. Love is the answer. Nothing stops it. Not borders. Not death.” The New York Times Book Review celebrated it as “Epic […] Rambunctious […] Sorrowful and funny […] Cheerfully profane . . .The quips and jokes come fast through a poignant novel that is very much about time itself […] A powerful rendering of a Mexican-American family that is also an American family.”