shopping cart
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Book News, Guests | December 14, 2009

Amy Gray: IMG How to Be a Vampire



Oh, hi. I'm Amy Gray. I like smoking, carbs, and words. I live in the (currently) sleek humidity of Melbourne, Australia. When not lying... Continue »
  1. $10.49 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

This item may be
out of stock.

Click on the button below to search for this title in other formats.
Check for Availability
Add to Wishlist

Into the Beautiful North Signed Edition

by Luis Alberto Urrea

Into the Beautiful North Signed Edition Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US to find work. Recently, it has dawned on her that he isn't the only man who has left town. In fact, there are almost no men in the village — they've all gone north. While watching The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men — her own Siete Magnificos — to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.

Filled with unforgettable characters and prose as radiant as the Sinaloan sun, Into the Beautiful North is the story of an irresistible young woman's quest to find herself on both sides of the fence.

Review:

"Nayeli, the Taqueria worker of Urrea's fine new novel (after The Hummingbird's Daughter), is a young woman in the poor but tight-knit coastal Mexican town of Tres Camarones who spends her days serving tacos and helping her feisty aunt Irma get elected as the town's first female mayor. Abandoned by her father who headed north for work years before, Nayeli is hit with the realization that her hometown is all but abandoned by men, leaving it at the mercy of drug gangsters. So Nayeli hatches an elaborate scheme inspired by The Magnificent Seven: with three friends, she heads north to find seven Mexican men and smuggle them back into Mexico to protect the town. What she discovers along the way, of course, surprises her. Urrea's poetic sensibility and journalistic eye for detail in painting the Mexican landscape and sociological complexities create vivid, memorable scenes. Though the Spanglish can be tough for the uninitiated to detangle, the colorful characters, strong narrative and humor carry this surprisingly uplifting and very human story." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"His fast-paced, accessible style has the crossover appeal of a John Steinbeck or Cormac McCarthy, while the politically charged undercurrent of the novel pulses with a compassionate vision of the future. Highly recommended." Library Journal

Review:

"Here is a funny and poignant impossible journey in which the characters come to earn pride for a homeland they have gone on a comedic pilgrimage to defend." Dallas Morning News

Review:

"Sardonic humor, rugged details of the working-class poor, and the exotic, often bizarre characters all contribute to an outstanding reading treat." Booklist

Synopsis:

Beloved bestselling author Luis Alberto Urrea returns with a brilliant, ebullient, and timely road novel about a young woman's journey north, to America.

About the Author

Luis Alberto Urrea is author of widely acclaimed novel The Hummingbird's Daughter and 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction for The Devil's Highway. A member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Luis was born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican father and an American mother.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
i8pixistix, June 29, 2009 (view all comments by i8pixistix)
A little slow at the start but worth patience as the story winds and unfolds into a great adventure for all the characters - literally and figuratively. Delicately, clearly, sometimes with humor and sometimes with horror the author allows the reader to stay in touch with an incredibly current and touchy subject - which is one of the central themes of this book. In a very subtle and beautiful written way, it challenges the reader.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)

Product Details

ISBN:
9781135977498
Publisher:
Little Brown and Company
Binding:
Hardcover
Author:
Urrea, Luis Alberto
Language:
English
Pages:
352

Other books you might like

  1. $10.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Likeness

    Tana French
  2. $4.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    The Pearl

    John Steinbeck
  3. $8.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list
  4. $25.95 New Hardcover add to wish list

    Border Songs

    Jim Lynch
  5. $26.95 New Hardcover add to wish list

    The Angel's Game

    Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  6. $15.00 New Trade Paper add to wish list
  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.