The Gringo Champion (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781609453657)

The award-winning debut novel by young Mexican author Aura Xilonen, The Gringo Champion is a thrillingly inventive story about crossing borders that the Los Angeles Review of Books called one of the must-read books of 2017.

Liborio has to leave Mexico, a land that has taught him little more than a keen instinct for survival. He crosses the Rio Bravo, like so many others, to reach the promised land. And in a barrio like any other, in some gringo city, this illegal immigrant tells his story.

As Liborio narrates his memories we discover a childhood scarred by malnutrition and abandonment, an adolescence lived with a sense of having nothing to lose. In his new home, he finds a job at a bookstore. He falls in love with a woman so intensely that his fantasies of her verge on obsession. And, finally, he finds himself on a path that just might save him: he becomes a boxer.

This is a migrant's story of deracination, loneliness, fear, and finally, love told in a sparkling, innovative prose. It's Million Dollar Baby meets The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and a story of migration and hope that is as topical as it is timeless.

Author: Aura Xilonen
ISBN-10: 1609453654
ISBN-13: 9781609453657
Publisher: Europa Editions
Language: English
Published: 01/17/2017
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.30w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 01/01/2017 pg. 34