A debut collection by a Pilsen native is set in the gritty and violently beautiful south side barrio and follows how the region's vendettas and environment shape the daily lives of a range of characters, including a 14-year-old immigrant who might possess an ability to bring people back from the dead.
Collects stories of violence, decay, and beauty from Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.
To those outside it, Pilsen is a vast barrio on the south side of Chicago. To Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski, it is a world of violence and decay and beauty, of nuance and pure chance. It is a place where the smell of cooking frijoles is washed away by that of dead fish in the river, where vendettas are a daily routine, and where a fourteen-year-old immigrant might hold the ability bring people back from the dead.
Simultaneously tough and tender, these stories mark the debut of a writer poised to represent his city's literature for decades to come.
