Abstract
From the acclaimed author of Brownsville and Amigoland-a stunning and timely new novel about a Mexican American family in Brownsville, Texas, who reluctantly becomes involved in smuggling immigrants into the United States. From a distance, the towns along the U.S.-Mexican border have dangerous reputations: on one side, drug cartels; on the other, zealous border patrol agents-and Brownsville is no different. But to twelve-year-old Orly, it's simply where his godmother, Nina, lives-and where he is being forced to stay the summer after his mother's sudden death.