A fableistic, "beautifully crafted, poetic" debut novel of
enormous power and grace about a sister trying to hold back her brother
from the edge of the abyss for readers of Jesmyn Ward and Tommy Orange (The New York Times Book Review).
In
the tourist town of Ciudad de Tres Hermanas, in the aftermath of their
mother's passing, two siblings spend a final weekend together in their
childhood home. Seeing her brother, Rafa, careening toward a place of no
return, Rufina devises a bet: if they can make enough money performing
for privileged tourists in the plaza over the course of the weekend to
afford a plane ticket out, Rafa must commit to living. If not, Rufina
will make her peace with Rafa's own plan for the future, however
terrifying it may be.
As the siblings reckon with generational
and ancestral trauma, set against the indignities of present-day
prejudice, other strange hauntings begin to stalk these pages: their
mother's ghost kicks her heels against the walls; Rufina's vanished
child creeps into her arms at night; and above all this, watching over
the siblings, a genderless, flea-bitten angel remains hell-bent on
saving what can be saved.
