Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation

<b>Finalist for the National Book Award!</b>In this beautifully wrought memoir award-winning writer <b>John Philip Santos</b> weaves together dream fragments family remembrances and Chicano mythology reaching back into time and place to blend the story of one Mexican family with the soul of an entire people. The story unfolds through a pageant of unforgettable family figures: from Madrina--touched with epilepsy and prophecy ever since as a girl she saw a dying soul leave its body--to Teofilo who was kidnapped as an infant and raised by the Kikapu Indians of Northern Mexico. At the heart of the book is Santos' search for the meaning of his grandfather's suicide in San Antonio Texas in 1939. Part treasury of the elders part elegy part personal odyssey this is an immigration tale and a haunting family story that offers a rich magical view of Mexican-American culture.