Names on a Map: A Novel

Benjamin Alire Sáenz

tet 2009 · Harper Collins

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“A book of great lyrical power, Names on a Map is a heartbreaking mirror for our own time, about an American family torn apart by an unjust war. In Ben Saenz’ dexterous, tender hands, this novel is a salve upon the wounds of both then and now.” —Ruben Martinez, award winning author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail

A haunting novel from award-winning author and poet Benjamin Alire Saenz, about a family of Hispanic immigrants handling the psychological effects of a war they don’t feel is theirs to fight

In 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, the Espejo family of El Paso, Texas, is just like thousands of other American families coping with a war they feel does not concern them. When Gustavo, the eldest son—the “bad boy” of the family—is told to report for basic training, his ideology and sense of patriotism is put to the test.

Opting to flee to Mexico and avoid the draft, Gustavo soon realizes he is no more culturally connected to his ancestral homeland than he is to the America that called him to war. Poignant and insightful, Names on a Map explores with complex detail the harsh nature of immigrant life in the United States—and the emotional tug-of-war experienced by all those with allegiance to more than one country.

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Benjamin Alire Sáenz is the author of In Perfect Light, Carry Me Like Water, and House of Forgetting, as well as the author of several children’s books. He won the American Book Award for his collection of poems Calendar of Dust. Sáenz is the chair of the creative writing department at the University of Texas-El Paso.