‘A stunning debut novel; heartbreaking, richly layered and unputdownable’ – Roisín O’Donnell, author of Nesting
‘The characters don’t just jump off the page, they demand to be seen, heard and remembered long after you’ve put the book down’ Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming
Omar has known Martha since they were kids running the same East Dallas blocks. But the year she comes back to finish high school, he barely recognises her – same defiance, same brilliance, though that’s not what most guys, including Omar, notice.
Martha only wants one thing-to create a life that matches her potential. And yet, in the year that follows, she and Omar will grow closer than close.
As Martha attempts to chart her own course, the stories of the women who came before her unfold alongside her own. Mariana, her mother, a light-skinned beauty leaves Mexico and heads North, into the arms of America. Imelda, her grandmother, falls silent as a new political order takes hold after the Mexican Revolution. And Ana, her great-grandmother, a fierce soldadera, rides with Pancho Villa and pays for it in blood.
Omar will witness how the same forces that shaped their lives play out in Martha’s own. Then, he’ll confront what happens as a result, and the part he played.
A blistering debut spanning more than one hundred years and set on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, Decent People is at once a tender coming-of-age tale and a powerful reckoning with history.
‘The characters don’t just jump off the page, they demand to be seen, heard and remembered long after you’ve put the book down’ Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming
Omar has known Martha since they were kids running the same East Dallas blocks. But the year she comes back to finish high school, he barely recognises her – same defiance, same brilliance, though that’s not what most guys, including Omar, notice.
Martha only wants one thing-to create a life that matches her potential. And yet, in the year that follows, she and Omar will grow closer than close.
As Martha attempts to chart her own course, the stories of the women who came before her unfold alongside her own. Mariana, her mother, a light-skinned beauty leaves Mexico and heads North, into the arms of America. Imelda, her grandmother, falls silent as a new political order takes hold after the Mexican Revolution. And Ana, her great-grandmother, a fierce soldadera, rides with Pancho Villa and pays for it in blood.
Omar will witness how the same forces that shaped their lives play out in Martha’s own. Then, he’ll confront what happens as a result, and the part he played.
A blistering debut spanning more than one hundred years and set on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, Decent People is at once a tender coming-of-age tale and a powerful reckoning with history.
Reviews
With a tenderness and vulnerability that I found reminiscent of Kiese Laymon's Heavy, Guel weaves a stunning, sweeping, layered, historical, coming-of-age narrative that employs the complexities of family, friendship, and politics to confront what it means to be decent people in the context of contemporary Mexican American life. In its heart wrenching, resonant aftermath, this novel teaches us that sometimes there are no winners, only survivors, but with survival comes the sweetness of hope.
Set in an East Dallas neighborhood that goes from being one generation's dream to the next generation's complicated inheritance, Decent People is a panoramic portrait of a gifted girl determined to forge her own way. Guel's striking debut broke my heart, charmed me, and utterly transfixed me. Wise, gritty, and tender, Decent People announces the arrival of a whipsmart and devastating new literary voice
Decent People is a stunning debut novel; heartbreaking, richly layered and unputdownable. In a narrative voice that is instantly engaging and companionable, Guel sweeps readers along in a story of migration and exile, friendship and family, ambition and betrayal. Here is a brave writer who stares into the face of discrimination based on race, class and gender, and never flinches. The fact that all this is wrapped in a narrative so full of warmth, humour and tenderness makes it all the more remarkable. I cannot wait for whatever Guel writes next.
The debut novel I've been waiting for! The characters in Decent People don't just jump off the page, they demand to be seen, heard and remembered long after you've put the book down. Guel has rendered a story that is both a deeply intimate coming of age novel and a kaleidoscopic look at all the history we carry- personal and political- as Americans with roots in other places. Martha's plight will pierce year heart, but Omar's spirit will heal you. A beautifully rendered reminder that none of us live in a vacuum, and that one life can touch and transform so many others