The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse

Previously compared to the work of Junot Diaz, Sherman Alexie, and Jhumpa Lahiri, The Madonnas of Echo Park follows the lives of Mexican Americans in the shifting landscape of Los Angeles’s Echo Park neighborhood. Felicia, a housekeeper, and her daughter Aurora weave in and out of each others’ lives, struggling to find a common ground on which to relate. Aurora’s former classmates Duchess and Angie, steeped in American culture, drift apart as they choose different paths in life, each looking for a place to fit in. As their lives tangle together and bounce apart, each is given the opportunity to decide what is truly important to them. (From the Official Reading Group Guide, found at http://pages.simonandschuster.com/themadonnasofechoparktp)