Synopses & Reviews
In a small town on the Mexican border live two brothers, Don Fidencio and Don Celestino. Stubborn and independent, they now must face the facts: they are old, and they have let a family argument stand between them for too long.
Don Celestino's good-natured housekeeper encourages him to make amends — while he still can. They secretly liberate Don Fidencio from his nursing home and travel into Mexico to solve the mystery at the heart of their dispute: the family legend of their grandfather's kidnapping. As the unlikely trio travels, the brothers learn it's never too late for a new beginning.
Review
"A winning novel...It's plain to see how love, borders, death — and most of all, willful ignorance — are part of everyday reawakenings. With Casares' blessing, you can laugh at them all." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[E]xceptional first novel....Casares allows his characters to embrace what they can become without forcing them to lose who they are....In a dusty brown town, the journey of these three ordinary people provides asplash of color and spirit. Knowing, touching and true." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[T]he ending? Bittersweet, unexpected and undeniably precious....Amigoland is full of new friends and makes for perfect summer reading." Bookpage
Review
"Their journey involves buses, pharmacies, and walkers in place of Thunderbirds, murders, and sex with Brad Pitt, but Casares's comedy of missed cues and carefully tended rancor makes the revelations at the end of the book...testify all the more eloquently to the strange and unpredictable paths that memory can take." Benjamin Moser, Harper's Magazine (read the entire )
Synopsis
With winsome prose and heartfelt humor, Casares' debut novel of family lost and found radiates with generosity and grace and confirms the arrival of a uniquely talented new writer.
About the Author
Oscar Casares received an MFA at Iowa and his stories have appeared in The Iowa Review, Colorado Review, Northwest Review, and Threepenny Review. He was raised in Brownsville and is a lifelong resident of Texas.