"Perhaps
never before has a conflict within a single
mind been dramatized so suspensefully….
Eloquent, tough, gritty…tremendously
courageous writing. It’s not to be
missed by anyone who cares about what’s
happening to our society on the edge of
the 21st century." –Chicago
Tribune
"…a
vivid slice-of-life of the underclass and
the people who work with them…a haunting
debut…an anguished tour of several
kinds of hell." –Kirkus
Reviews
"Douglas
Ann Munson is a wonderful writer. Her novel
is tough, sensual, and sensitive, completely
modern in its voice and views. A remarkable
debut." – John Rechy
"This
is a ground-breaking book—dark and
eloquent—which tells the complete
story of the subject no one wants to look
at…let alone examine." –Deena
Metzger
"This
novel is in the tradition of Tom Wolfe’s
Bonfire of the Vanities and Tolstoy’s
The Resurrection in revealing and uncovering
the inner workings of the court process
and the denizens dwelling it its depths…it
is a very well written and insightful book."
–Family and Conciliation Courts
Review
"El
Niño burns with a radiance and intensity.
It speaks in tongues as all visionary art
does. …the novel refuses conventional
borders and strategies. It doesn’t
compromise." –Kate Braverman
in The Los Angeles Times
"An
eloquent book that’s so tough you
have to read it with clenched teeth" –Daily News |
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"This
is a wonderful book, expertly crafted, well
written, lyrical, devastating, universal
in its cry from the heart for the suffering
heaped on innocence. El Niño
is a book that will help lighten and light
another dark corner of our minds."
–Hubert Selby
"Los
Angeles lawyer Douglas Anne Munson has written
a first novel that is …raw, poetic…powerful
and very moving…It is a memorable
work of one who has delved into a job that
sometimes verges on nightmare, and brought
it into the daylight." –California
Lawyer
"This
is a raw, sometimes ugly book that will
distress but not fail to move." –Publishers
Weekly |
During
a long, hot summer of burning winds and bizarre
weather conditions, LA lawyer Sandy Walker
is fighting to keep her balance. The court-appointed
defense counsel for people accused of abusing
their children, she’s thirty-four and
struggling to overcome her own tragic past.
While trying to untangle the difficult, delicate
lives of her clients, Sandy finds herself
caught in a hidden life she cannot admit to,
much less redeem. Her caseload is insupportably
heavy; her lover is cheating on her; she’s
heartsick, tired, fed up, and drinking heavily.
By the time Jesus Valeria, accused of molesting
his daughter, is assigned to Sandy for help,
it is no longer clear whether she can recognize
innocence, or whether she has lost the faith
necessary to save him, even to save herself.
