Retablos: Stories From a Life Lived Along the Border [Paperback]

Recommended by theNew York Timesand NBC News, and called one of the Best Books of the Year by Buzzfeed!

TheNew York Timesdirects readers toRetablosif you want to know what's life really like on the Mexican border. Solis grew up just a mile from the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, and he tells stories about his childhood and coming of age, including his parents migration to the United States from Mexico, his first encounter with racism and finding a Mexican migrant girl hiding in the cotton fields. —Concepción de León,New York Times

Seminal moments, rites of passage, crystalline vignettes—a memoir about growing up brown at the U.S./Mexico border.

More praise for Octavio Solis'sRetablos:

This is AmericanandMexican literature a stone's throw from the always hustling El Paso border. —Gary Soto, author ofThe Elementsof San Joaquin

We inhabit a border world rich in characters, lush with details, playful and poignant, a border that refutes the stereotypes and divisions smaller minds create. Solis reminds us that sometimes the most profound truths are best told with crafted fictions--and he is a master at it. —Julia Alvarez, author ofHow the García Girls Lost Their Accents

… it's hard not to consider the border itself as a representation of a 'terrible rift,' a split between homes, communities, identities, generations. While reading this generous and eye-opening account, it's easy to see how, for the country at large, the rift has only deepened.”—Arianna Rebolini, Buzzfeed Best Books of Fall 2018

Landing somewhere between Neil Gaiman and Juan Rulfo, Solis secularizes the mythological by turning men and women into saintly figures—like their crilól