Anaya draws on the Spanish-American folklore with which he grew up in this unique depiction of a Hispanic childhood in the Southwest.

Full of “sensual dreams [and] unexplained phenomena,” this "best-known and most-respected" coming-of-age classic from the godfather of Chicano literature follows a young boy growing up in the llano, or plains, of post-World War II New Mexico, and the generous curandera who introduces him to the sacred side of life (New York Times). A PBS Great American Read · Winner of the Premio Quinto Sol Award · Recipient of the National Humanities Medal · With a new Foreword by author, playwright, and stage director Denise Chavez; a new Afterword by award-winning journalist and author Carmela Padilla; and a new essay by Manuel Muñoz, a Macarthur Fellow and winner of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. “I pulled this baby into the light of life . . . Only I will know his destiny.” Antonio Marez is six years old when the woman who helped usher him into the world comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. Venerated by some as a miracle-worker—and disparaged by others as a bruja—Ultima, a curandera, or healer, opens Tony’s eyes to the spiritual roots of his culture, and introduces him to a magical, if sometimes frightening, new world: a realm in which she operates as a shaman. Suddenly, the ordinary challenges and triumphs of childhood become extraordinary. As Ultima shows Tony how to cure ailments, reverse curses, and restore peace to those who have lost it, he embarks on a singular quest, one in which he probes the family ties that bind and rend him, questions the Catholicism that shaped him, and explores the Spanish, Mexican, and Native American influences that informed not only his heritage, but his very sense of self. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who was there the day he was born . . . and will nurture the birth of his soul. A rich and wondrous story that reveals universal truths about the human condition and celebrates the beauty of Chicano culture. Includes a Reading Group Guide.

Publisher Description

The Albuquerque barrio portrayed in this vivid novel of postwar New Mexico is a place where urban and rural, political and religious realities coexist, collide, and combine. The magic realism for which Anaya is well known combines with an emphatic portrayal of the plight of workers dispossessed of their heritage and struggling to survive in an alien culture.

From Attica Locke, a writer and producer of FOX’s Empire: “The Cutting Season is a rare murder mystery with heft, a historical novel that thrills, a page-turner that makes you think. Attica Locke is a dazzling writer with a conscience.”—Dolen Perkins-Valdez, New York Times bestselling author of Wench After her breathtaking debut novel, Black Water Rising, won acclaim from major publications and respected crime fiction masters like James Ellroy and George Pelecanos, Locke returns with The Cutting Season, a second novel easily as gripping and powerful as her first—a heart-pounding thriller that interweaves two murder mysteries, one on Belle Vie, a historic landmark in the middle of Lousiana’s Sugar Cane country, and one involving a slave gone missing more than one hundred years earlier. Black Water Rising was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an Edgar® Award, and an NAACP Image Award, and was short-listed for the Orange Prize in the U.K.

Lauded as the father of Chicano storytelling in English, Rudolfo Anaya's work is famed for its cultural resonance and unforgettable characters. Here is one of his richest achievements -- a spellbinding tale of history, place, and destiny ...Nobody knows the real "Alburquerque" like young boxer Abran Gonzalez. A homeboy from the barrio, his world shatters the night he is summoned to the deathbed of his biological mother -- a woman he has never known. He learns he is the son of a wealthy Anglo woman and a father whose identity Abran feels compelled to uncover. Thus begins a passionate quest that will lead him to Alburquerque's highest, and whitest, circles. Confronting greedy businessmen, politicians, and bigots, Abran will battle for the city's future, gain insight into its vanishing past ... and discover his own soul.