"In this insightful book, Brando Skyhorse reveals himself to be a trenchant and passionate observer of the forgotten underclasses of Los Angeles. He's fashioned a desperate La Ronde for Echo Park and a requiem for the eighties."---Glen David Gold, author of Sunnyside and Carter Beats the DevilDan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply"Brando Skyhorse writes with great compassion and wit (and a touch of magic) about the lives of people who are often treated as if they are invisible. The stories that make up this novel weave together to create a complex and vivid portrait of a Los Angeles we seldom see in literature or film. The Madonnas of Echo Park is a memorable literary debut."---Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply"In this gorgeous and suspenseful book, the admirably talented Brando Skyhorse takes his readers. to a kingdom that he has made very, much his own---Echo Park, California. I loved reading about his richly imagined characters, both Mexican and American, and how their lives intersect with our much more familiar versions of Los Angeles."---Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street and Eva Moves the Furniture"A beautiful sweep of Los Angeles, told through multiple viewpoints that showcase Brando Skyhorse's breadth. The Madonnas of Echo Park is a terrific journey, where characters reemerge unexpectedly until by the end the book has created a full and vivid world."---Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Willful Creatures"In its depiction of what amounts to a parallel social universe, The Madonnas of Echo Park provides a master class in nonlinear narrative, written with imaginative generosity and emotional precision, poignant, brutal, and refreshingly unsentimental. Brando Skyhorse has what can't be faked: talent. His book is an understated triumph."---Glen Duncan, author of Death of an Ordinary Man and, Lucifer"The hard, bitter grit of life in Echo Park, especially for women, is made quite wonderful by warmth and bright color, humor and compassion; in [the book's] keenly felt insight into the human condition, Echo Park is the world: this is who we are, like it or not. Altogether a terrific book by a highly accomplished new author. Where has he been?"---Peter Matthiessen, National Book Award---winning author of Shadow Country and The Snow LeopardWith these words, spoken by an illegal Mexican day laborer, The Madonnas of Echo Park takes us into the unseen world of Los Angeles, following the men and women who cook the meals, clean the homes, and struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream.When a dozen or so girls and mothers gather on an Echo Park street corner to act out a scene from a Madonna music video, they find themselves caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting. In the aftermath, Aurora Esperanza grows distant from her mother, Felicia, who as a housekeeper in the Hollywood Hills establishes a unique relationship with a detached housewife.The Esperanzas' shifting lives connect with those of various members of their neighborhood. A day laborer trolls the streets for work with men half his age and witnesses a murder that pits his morality against his illegal status; a religious hypocrite gets her comeuppance when she meets the Virgin Mary at a bus stop on Sunset Boulevard; a typical bus route turns violent when cultures and egos collide in the night, with devastating results; and Aurora goes on a journey through her gentrified childhood neighborhood in a quest to discover her own history and her place in the land that all Mexican Americans dream of, "the land that belongs to us again."Like the Academy Award---winning film Crash, The Madonnas of Echo Park follows the intersections of its characters and cultures in Los Angeles. In the footsteps of Junot Diaz and Sherman Alexie, Brando Skyhorse in his debut novel gives voice to one neighborhood in Los Angeles with an astonishing---and unforgettable---lyrical power. Read Less