search for books and compare prices
By
Ana Castillo
Price
Store
Arrives
Preparing
Shipping
Jump quickly to results on these stores:
The price is the lowest for any condition, which may be new or used; other conditions may also be available.
Jump down to see edition details for: Hardcover
Bibliographic Detail
Publisher
Random House Inc
Publication date
July 31, 2007
Pages
211
Binding
Hardcover
Book category
Adult Fiction
ISBN-13
9781400065004
ISBN-10
1400065003
Dimensions
1 by 6.50 by 9.75 in.
Weight
1.05 lbs.
Availability§
Publisher Out of Stock Indefinitely
Original list price
$24.95
§As reported by publisher
Amazon.com says people who bought this book also bought:
The Rain God | Borderlands / La Frontera | Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club | In the Time of the Butterflies | Dreaming in Cuban | Vintage Cisneros | Their Dogs Came With Them
The Rain God | Borderlands / La Frontera | Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club | In the Time of the Butterflies | Dreaming in Cuban | Vintage Cisneros | Their Dogs Came With Them
Summaries and Reviews
Summary
Discovering that her brother has vanished while crossing the border from Mexico the United States, Regina, a middle-aged widow, and her nephew, Gabo, embark on a perilous search for him, joining forces with an amorous, divorced schoolteacher and his grandfather, as well as a priest losing his faith. By the author of Peel My Love Like an Onion. 20,000 first printing.
Amazon.com description: Product Description: From American Book Award-winning author Ana Castillo comes a suspenseful, moving new novel about a sensuous, smart, and fiercely independent woman. Eking out a living as a teacherâs aide in a small New Mexican border town, TÃa Regina is also raising her teenage nephew, Gabo, a hardworking boy who has entered the country illegally and aspires to the priesthood. When Gaboâs father, Rafa, disappears while crossing over from Mexico, Regina fears the worst.
After several days of waiting and with an ominous phone call from a woman who may be connected to a smuggling ring, Regina and Gabo resolve to find Rafa. Help arrives in the form of Miguel, an amorous, recently divorced history teacher; Miguelâs gregarious abuelo Milton; a couple of Gaboâs gangbanger classmates; and a priest of wayward faith. Between the ruthless âcoyotesâ who exploit Mexicans while smuggling them to America and the border officials who are out to arrest and deport the illegal immigrants, looming threat is a constant companion on the journey.
Ana Castillo brilliantly evokes the beautiful, stark desert landscape and creates vivid characters with strong voices and resilient hearts. âLike Sandra Cisnerosâs acclaimed The House on Mango Street,â wrote Barbara Kingsolver when reviewing So Far from God, âCastilloâs writing is seasoned with Mexican aphorisms [and] rich symbolism. . . . Impossible to resist.â The Guardians serves as a remarkable testament to enduring faith, family bonds, cultural pride, and the human experience.
âThe Guardians is a rollicking read, with jokes and suspense and joy rides and hearts breaking, mending and breaking again. It hasâ¦a deeply rooted urgency, expressed with a compelling mix of bruised indignation and bemused tenderness....This smart, passionate novel deserves a wide audience.â â Los Angeles Times
âTimely and highly readableâ¦.Castilloâs most important accomplishment in The Guardians is to give a unique literary voice to questions about what makes up a âfamily,â Mexican-American or otherwise, where an independent soul can find redemption, particularly in a hostile world, and how we can realistically find âfaith,â if we can find it at all, after we have suffered through our personal and political histories, and are still standing on this earth. This is a wonderful novel that does justice to life on the Mexican-American border.â â El Paso Times
âOnly a gifted storyteller could portray one familyâs tragic struggle to overcome the barriers between nationality and dignity in a way that makes her cause own own. Does Castillo do this? Claro que si.â â New York Daily News
âWhat drives the novel is its chorus of characters, all, in their own way, witnesses and guardian angels. In the end, Castilloâs unmistakable voiceâearthy, impassioned, weaving a âhybrid vocabulary for a hybrid peopleââis the bookâs greatest revelation, even as the search for Rafa races to its dreaded conclusion.â â Time Out New York
âFrom its lyrical first linesâ¦The Guardians invites you into the story of Regina, a 50ish virgin-widow living in a small town on the border between the U.S. and Mexico; her neighbors; her family; and the dangerous forces that surround them â the narco traffickers, the Border Patrol, the coyotes and the âunmerciful desertâ itself. The novel is earning praise for its timeliness in addressing issues of immigration, and for what novelist Cristina Garcia calls its âliterary magic.ââ â Orange County Register
âCastillo's topical, heartbreaking novel blooms from the rugged desert soil along the U.S.-Mexican border, in a small New Mexican town perched on the fault line of the immigration controversyâ¦. [Castillo] allows her characters to speak poignantly to the harsh truths of border life....What if we didn't have passionate, lyrical writers to shine a beacon on injustice and cruelty or remind us of the dignity due all human beings? We would be poorer and more ignorant, indeed.â â Miami Herald âForecast for Summer Readingâ
âThe complex and perilous life along the border between the United States and Mexico is the timely subject of this impassioned novel. Castillo uses a classic storytelling format -- the search -- to provide an engaging tale narrated by a poor yet fearless and wise widow trying to find her brotherâ¦.this spare, sometimes profane novel provides a powerful glimpse of border lives hanging in the everyday balance.â â Seattle Post Intelligencer (one of their âbest of the 2007 releases from June, July and Augustâ)
âCastillo writes fiction and poetry of earthy sensuality, wry social commentary, and lyrical spiritualism that confront the cruel injustices accorded women and Mexicans in America, legal and otherwiseâ¦.In this tightly coiled and powerful taleâ¦.At once shatteringly realistic and dramatically mystical, Castillo's incandescent novel of suffering and love traces life's movement toward the light even in the bleakest of places.â Booklist (starred review)
âA nuanced, vibrant look at the American experience through Mexican-American eyes.â â Kirkus Reviews
âThe end of the month brings Ana Castillo's GUARDIANS (Random House), a fictional foray into the world of illegal immigration. The plot revolves around a Mexican man who goes missing during a crossing and his sister's efforts to track the coyotes who may have had a hand in it.ââHouston Chronicle âA Fictional Feastâ
"THE GUARDIANS" by Ana Castillo: The author of "Peel My Love Like an Onion" takes on the many issues surrounding illegal immigration in a powerful new novel in which a family's faith is tested. "Wonderful ... moving ... intimate ... epic," Oscar Hijuelos told Amazon.com.âSan Antonio Express-News âNew Summer Booksâ
âThe acclaimed author of Peel My Love Like an Onion tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross the the U.S. for workâ¦Castillo writes convincingly in the voices of the canny, struggling Reginaâ¦.the desirous Miguel; the passionately religious Gabo; and El Abuelo Milton, Miguelâs elderly grandfatherâ¦[she] takes readers forcefully into the lives of the neglected and abused.â â Publishers Weekly
âAna Castillo is one of those writers that I always expect not just the best of, but the best of the best of. She certainly doesnât disappoint in her lyrical new book The Guardiansâ¦.Castillo weaves into this intricately elegant story the Juarez murders of women, the Minutemen, the politics and the desert border town. Itâs an amazing feat. She compels with each word, breathes magic into her words and weâre there.â Blogcritics.org
âA wonderful and moving book that is both intimate and epic in its narrative.â â Oscar Hijuelos, author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
âAna Castillo gives America exactly what it needs - her vision of a border most people never see, and not the border they expect, and a story that will not let us go. Her voice is singular, and her talents are on full display here. Everyone needs to visit her world, and to understand her guardians of love and dignity.â â Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales
âAna Castillo is a fearless storyteller. In The Guardians, she addresses the key issues racking our immigrant nation and hemisphere. This brave, unflinching novel shows the tragic consequences that come from not facing what is happening in our communities to those without true guardians to protect them.â -- Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World
âMan, what a book. Blood and awe, laughter and stark fear. As soon as you see the earth âshiveringâ in the opening sentences of this potent novel, you will know you are in the right place. The characters are as real and quirky as your own neighbors, though you start to realize they are also people you have probably never met before. A vital work of healing and astonishment from a medicine-woman at full power. America needs to read this story.â â Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbirdâs Daughter
"THE GUARDIANS, a surprising and powerful novel, captures the vulnerability and stark beauty of life in a small, border town. Castillo instills the voices of her four main characters with such passion and humanity, their vitality practically crackles on the page. Unforgettable and timely,Castillo will charm you once again with her literary magic." â Cristina Garcia, author of A Handbook to Luck
"Iâve been waiting for years for this novel, in this voice. The Guardians is Ana Castilloâs most perfect novel, and one of her most politically significant. Through beautifully drawn characters and their engrossing stories, Castillo brings our governmentâs dirty little war on Latin American immigrants into our consciousness and demands that we choose sides."
-- Ibis Gomez-Vega, Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University, author of Send My Roots Rain
After several days of waiting and with an ominous phone call from a woman who may be connected to a smuggling ring, Regina and Gabo resolve to find Rafa. Help arrives in the form of Miguel, an amorous, recently divorced history teacher; Miguelâs gregarious abuelo Milton; a couple of Gaboâs gangbanger classmates; and a priest of wayward faith. Between the ruthless âcoyotesâ who exploit Mexicans while smuggling them to America and the border officials who are out to arrest and deport the illegal immigrants, looming threat is a constant companion on the journey.
Ana Castillo brilliantly evokes the beautiful, stark desert landscape and creates vivid characters with strong voices and resilient hearts. âLike Sandra Cisnerosâs acclaimed The House on Mango Street,â wrote Barbara Kingsolver when reviewing So Far from God, âCastilloâs writing is seasoned with Mexican aphorisms [and] rich symbolism. . . . Impossible to resist.â The Guardians serves as a remarkable testament to enduring faith, family bonds, cultural pride, and the human experience.
âThe Guardians is a rollicking read, with jokes and suspense and joy rides and hearts breaking, mending and breaking again. It hasâ¦a deeply rooted urgency, expressed with a compelling mix of bruised indignation and bemused tenderness....This smart, passionate novel deserves a wide audience.â â Los Angeles Times
âTimely and highly readableâ¦.Castilloâs most important accomplishment in The Guardians is to give a unique literary voice to questions about what makes up a âfamily,â Mexican-American or otherwise, where an independent soul can find redemption, particularly in a hostile world, and how we can realistically find âfaith,â if we can find it at all, after we have suffered through our personal and political histories, and are still standing on this earth. This is a wonderful novel that does justice to life on the Mexican-American border.â â El Paso Times
âOnly a gifted storyteller could portray one familyâs tragic struggle to overcome the barriers between nationality and dignity in a way that makes her cause own own. Does Castillo do this? Claro que si.â â New York Daily News
âWhat drives the novel is its chorus of characters, all, in their own way, witnesses and guardian angels. In the end, Castilloâs unmistakable voiceâearthy, impassioned, weaving a âhybrid vocabulary for a hybrid peopleââis the bookâs greatest revelation, even as the search for Rafa races to its dreaded conclusion.â â Time Out New York
âFrom its lyrical first linesâ¦The Guardians invites you into the story of Regina, a 50ish virgin-widow living in a small town on the border between the U.S. and Mexico; her neighbors; her family; and the dangerous forces that surround them â the narco traffickers, the Border Patrol, the coyotes and the âunmerciful desertâ itself. The novel is earning praise for its timeliness in addressing issues of immigration, and for what novelist Cristina Garcia calls its âliterary magic.ââ â Orange County Register
âCastillo's topical, heartbreaking novel blooms from the rugged desert soil along the U.S.-Mexican border, in a small New Mexican town perched on the fault line of the immigration controversyâ¦. [Castillo] allows her characters to speak poignantly to the harsh truths of border life....What if we didn't have passionate, lyrical writers to shine a beacon on injustice and cruelty or remind us of the dignity due all human beings? We would be poorer and more ignorant, indeed.â â Miami Herald âForecast for Summer Readingâ
âThe complex and perilous life along the border between the United States and Mexico is the timely subject of this impassioned novel. Castillo uses a classic storytelling format -- the search -- to provide an engaging tale narrated by a poor yet fearless and wise widow trying to find her brotherâ¦.this spare, sometimes profane novel provides a powerful glimpse of border lives hanging in the everyday balance.â â Seattle Post Intelligencer (one of their âbest of the 2007 releases from June, July and Augustâ)
âCastillo writes fiction and poetry of earthy sensuality, wry social commentary, and lyrical spiritualism that confront the cruel injustices accorded women and Mexicans in America, legal and otherwiseâ¦.In this tightly coiled and powerful taleâ¦.At once shatteringly realistic and dramatically mystical, Castillo's incandescent novel of suffering and love traces life's movement toward the light even in the bleakest of places.â Booklist (starred review)
âA nuanced, vibrant look at the American experience through Mexican-American eyes.â â Kirkus Reviews
âThe end of the month brings Ana Castillo's GUARDIANS (Random House), a fictional foray into the world of illegal immigration. The plot revolves around a Mexican man who goes missing during a crossing and his sister's efforts to track the coyotes who may have had a hand in it.ââHouston Chronicle âA Fictional Feastâ
"THE GUARDIANS" by Ana Castillo: The author of "Peel My Love Like an Onion" takes on the many issues surrounding illegal immigration in a powerful new novel in which a family's faith is tested. "Wonderful ... moving ... intimate ... epic," Oscar Hijuelos told Amazon.com.âSan Antonio Express-News âNew Summer Booksâ
âThe acclaimed author of Peel My Love Like an Onion tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross the the U.S. for workâ¦Castillo writes convincingly in the voices of the canny, struggling Reginaâ¦.the desirous Miguel; the passionately religious Gabo; and El Abuelo Milton, Miguelâs elderly grandfatherâ¦[she] takes readers forcefully into the lives of the neglected and abused.â â Publishers Weekly
âAna Castillo is one of those writers that I always expect not just the best of, but the best of the best of. She certainly doesnât disappoint in her lyrical new book The Guardiansâ¦.Castillo weaves into this intricately elegant story the Juarez murders of women, the Minutemen, the politics and the desert border town. Itâs an amazing feat. She compels with each word, breathes magic into her words and weâre there.â Blogcritics.org
âA wonderful and moving book that is both intimate and epic in its narrative.â â Oscar Hijuelos, author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
âAna Castillo gives America exactly what it needs - her vision of a border most people never see, and not the border they expect, and a story that will not let us go. Her voice is singular, and her talents are on full display here. Everyone needs to visit her world, and to understand her guardians of love and dignity.â â Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales
âAna Castillo is a fearless storyteller. In The Guardians, she addresses the key issues racking our immigrant nation and hemisphere. This brave, unflinching novel shows the tragic consequences that come from not facing what is happening in our communities to those without true guardians to protect them.â -- Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World
âMan, what a book. Blood and awe, laughter and stark fear. As soon as you see the earth âshiveringâ in the opening sentences of this potent novel, you will know you are in the right place. The characters are as real and quirky as your own neighbors, though you start to realize they are also people you have probably never met before. A vital work of healing and astonishment from a medicine-woman at full power. America needs to read this story.â â Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbirdâs Daughter
"THE GUARDIANS, a surprising and powerful novel, captures the vulnerability and stark beauty of life in a small, border town. Castillo instills the voices of her four main characters with such passion and humanity, their vitality practically crackles on the page. Unforgettable and timely,Castillo will charm you once again with her literary magic." â Cristina Garcia, author of A Handbook to Luck
"Iâve been waiting for years for this novel, in this voice. The Guardians is Ana Castilloâs most perfect novel, and one of her most politically significant. Through beautifully drawn characters and their engrossing stories, Castillo brings our governmentâs dirty little war on Latin American immigrants into our consciousness and demands that we choose sides."
-- Ibis Gomez-Vega, Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University, author of Send My Roots Rain
Editions
Hardcover
The price comparison is for this edition
from Random House Inc (July 31, 2007)
9781400065004 | details & prices | 211 pages | 6.50 × 9.75 × 1.00 in. | 1.05 lbs | List price $24.95
About: When middle-aged teacher's assistant Regina discovers that her brother has vanished while crossing the border from Mexico to the United States, she and her nephew Gabo set out in search of him with the help of an eclectic cast of characters.
About: When middle-aged teacher's assistant Regina discovers that her brother has vanished while crossing the border from Mexico to the United States, she and her nephew Gabo set out in search of him with the help of an eclectic cast of characters.
Pricing is shown for items sent to or within the U.S., excluding shipping and tax. Please consult the store to determine exact fees. No warranties are made express or implied about the accuracy, timeliness, merit, or value of the information provided. Information subject to change without notice. isbn.nu is not a bookseller, just an information source.