Some Rivers End on the Day of the Dead

This book seemed to write itself between January and June in 2011. The amazing writing class of Steve Wolfson and the critique group led by Eve La Salle Caram allowed me to sit down joyfully each morning to write to prepare for reading in class or in group. And then the cover art was donated by San Francisco artist, Martha Rodriguez. I couldn't have asked for a better first journey. Like "Esperanza Rising" and "Rules of Attraction," this coming-of-age novel, "Some Rivers End on The Day of the Dead" follows a Hispanic teen, Marisol. She and her mother are on the run from their home in Tijuana, Mexico. Her father, investigating the drug wars as a journalist, has been murdered. But Marisol's new home is a riverbed camp in a rich California suburb. A wildfire separates Marisol from her mother and her school. Cut off and alone, she challenges herself to find a way to reunite with her family and to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico to honor her father with the proper traditions.