Synopses & Reviews
Exuberant and colorful,
Latin Moon in Manhattan paints a vivid portrait of New York City as the land of El Dorado for today's Latino immigrants. From Little Columbia in Queens to the street life of Times Square, this brilliant novel is crowded with an extraordinary cast of characters: Hot Sauce, a midget hooker; Simon Bolivar, a parrot who croons Julio Iglesias songs; the Urrutias, a family rich from cocaine smuggling; Santiago Martinez, a loner and would-be poet whose ancient cat, Mr. O'Donnell, is slowly dying of an enlarged heart.
Exploding with a profusion of plots and sub-plots involving drug smuggling, romance, and the literacy politics of Queens, Latin Moon in Manhattan is a rich and charming work.
Review
"A picaresque tale about a gay Columbian immigrant's adventures among hookers, self-made millionaires, narcotics traffickers, and elderly book mavens."—
The New York Times"Manrique catches the East Coast Colombian Americans as deftly as Amy Tan portrays the Chinese Americans of the West. But Manrique is a giddier writer than Tan; he waltzes between the zany, the melancholy, and the not quite surreal."—The Village Voice
"[Manrique's] is an exuberant voice—both entertaining and enriching. Latin Moon in Manhattan captures the urban rhythms and the diversity of the Latin world of New York."—Oscar Hijuelos
"An off-the-wall, wacky novel full of strange characters and bizarre incidents . . . picaresque and rambunctiously funny."—Los Angeles Times
"It is rare to find a novel these days so deeply amusing, touching, honest, and entertaining."—Phillip Lopate