OPEN MON-SAT 9AM-6PM | SUN 10AM-5:30PM

 (858) 454-0347

Luis Alberto Urrea - "The House of Broken Angels"

Luis Alberto Urrea - "The House of Broken Angels"

Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 7:30pm PDT

7812 Girard Avenue
La Jolla, CA 92037

On Tuesday, March 27th at 7:30pm Warwick's will host Luis Alberto Urrea to discuss and sign his new book The House of Broken Angels. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his landmark work of nonfiction The Devil’s Highway, Luis Alberto Urrea is also the bestselling author of the novels The Hummingbird’s Daughter, Into the Beautiful North, and Queen of America, as well as the story collection The Water Museum, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist. He has won the Lannan Literary Award, an Edgar Award, and a 2017 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, among many other honors. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and an American mother, he lives outside of Chicago and teaches at the University of Illinois–Chicago. This event is free and open to the public.  Reserved Seating is available when the book is pre-ordered from Warwick's for the event. Only books purchased from Warwick's will be signed. Please call the Warwick's Book Dept. (858) 454-0347 for details.

The House of Broken Angels is, as Urrea describes it, “the story of an American family—one that happens to speak Spanish and admire the Virgin of Guadalupe. Imperfect and glorious, messy and hilarious, sometimes heroic.” Inspired by the death of his brother, Urrea’s novel mines his own family history to tell a once-in-a-lifetime tale, simultaneously intimate in its detail and grand in its scope.

Miguel Angel De La Cruz, a.k.a. “Big Angel,” is dying. The beloved and rapidly declining patriarch of the De La Cruz clan, he assembles his relatives for a final, epic birthday bash. Days before the party, however, his mother, nearly a hundred herself, passes away, resulting in an extended farewell fete. Over the course of a weekend, the family members reminisce under the San Diego sun and stars, sharing stories about growing up in Mexico, leaving Mexico, and making a home in the United States.

No matter where you live, whether you were born in the United States or grew up elsewhere, this affectionate, passionate, flawed family will likely remind you in some way of your own. And novels like The House of Broken Angels—offering clarifying insight into the daily lives, the trials and triumphs, of Mexican-Americans—are especially needed today. We believe it’s a beautiful masterwork worthy of your close attention, and look forward to touching base with you about it in the near future.