(Little Brown and Company)
With numerous award-winning and best-selling books in his oeuvre, Luis Alberto Urrea obviously knows how to write a good book. “The House of Broken Angels” is just that, and it succeeds on every level it strives to reach. Primarily, and most importantly, it is a pleasure to read — engaging characters, heartwarming and heartbreaking plot, and seamless writing that allows the author to disappear behind the words. The mark of a truly great author is no mark at all, the novel flowing from a seemingly effortless source. When we meet the characters, Big Angel, beloved patriarch, is about to celebrate a birthday, is dying from cancer and is about to bury his mother. Members of the family from all around are headed to San Diego to mourn their loss and pay their respects. What unfolds on this momentous weekend is the story told in this book. The De La Cruz clan, from whence Big Angel comes, is big, loving, complicated and flawed. Their story is the quintessential American story, and it’s a good story, masterfully told.
— Reviewed by Jenny Lyons of The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury.
 
9 Tales of immigrant families
Marriage of a Thousand Lies, by SJ Sindu
No One Can Pronounce My Name, by Rakesh Satyal
Behold the Dreamers, by Imbolo Mbue
Speak No Evil, by Uzodinma Iweala
The Book of Unknown Americans, by Cristina Henriquez
Everyone Knows You Go Home, by Natalia Sylvester
Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin
House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III
We Were the Lucky Ones, by Georgia Hunter