Where We Come From A novel

ONE OF KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

“A richly conceived and devastating book about the border.” —Houston Chronicle

From a distance, the towns along the U.S.-Mexican border have dangerous reputations, 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. Nina, however, has a secret: she’s providing refuge for a young immigrant boy named Daniel, for whom traveling to America has meant trading one set of dangers for another. Separated from the violent human traffickers who brought him across the border and pursued by the authorities, Daniel must stay completely hidden. And Orly’s arrival threatens to put them all at risk of exposure.

Tackling the crisis of U.S. immigration policy from a deeply human angle, Where We Come From explores through an intimate lens the ways that family history shapes us, how secrets can burden us, and how finding compassion and understanding for others can ultimately set us free.

Oscar Cásares is the author of Brownsville, a collection of stories that was an American Library Association Notable Book, and the novel Amigoland. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Copernicus Society of America, and the Texas Institute of Letters. Originally from Brownsville, he now lives in Austin with his family and teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin.