Drowning Tucson

Book excerpt: "Morales wrestles with nothing less than the parameters of the human soul."--Luis Alberto Urrea Set in Tucson’s toughest neighborhoods during the late 1980s, this explosive debut follows the disintegration of the Nuñez family and the people whose paths they cross. From crooked cops to prostitutes plying their trade along the "Miracle Mile," each person's destiny is linked by crushing poverty, the brutal codes of the street, and the harsh nature of the desert. In this place of drought and flood, "civilization" is every bit as dangerous as its surroundings. Fast-paced and unrelenting, each chapter draws the reader in with the first line and doesn't let go until the heartrending finale. Like a southwest version of HBO's The Wire, this riveting novel is an episodic portrait of a desperate, violent America, populated by characters as lethal as they are sympathetic. Genuinely relevant and never gratuitous, Morales writes about the side of humanity that society fears and ignores. Without judgment, he portrays the lives of young gangbangers, despondent mothers, gay teenage runaways, corrupt preachers, twisted pedophiles, murderous vigilantes, and broken families--all just trying to get by. Born in 1976, Aaron Michael Morales grew up in Tucson. At age ten, he became a paperboy for the Arizona Daily Star and since then his jobs have ranged from working in a car parts factory to bartending in Chicago's Oak Park neighborhood. He currently teaches writing and literature at Indiana State University and is working on his second novel.