Tortuga

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Praise for the Writing of Rudolfo Anaya

“An extraordinary storyteller.” —
Los Angeles Times Book Review

“One of the nation's foremost Chicano literary artists.” —
The Denver Post

“[Anaya's work] is better called not the new multicultural writing, but the new American writing.” —
Newsweek

“One of the best writers in the country.” —
El Paso Times

“The godfather and guru of Chicano literature.” —Tony Hillerman, author of
The Blessing Way

“Poet of the barrio … the most widely read Mexican-American.” —
Newsweek

Alburquerque

Winner of PEN Center West Award for Fiction

“
Alburquerque
is a rich and tempestuous book, full of love and compassion, the complex and exciting skullduggery of politics, and the age-old quest for roots, identity, family … There is a marvelous tapestry of interwoven myth and magic that guides Anaya's characters' sensibilities, and is equally important in defining their feel of place. Above all, in this novel is a deep caring for land culture and for the spiritual well-being of people, environment, landscape.” —John Nichols, author of
The Milagro Beanfield War: A Novel

“
Alburquerque
portrays a quest for knowledge.… [It] is a novel about many cultures intersecting at an urban, power- and politics-filled crossroads, represented by a powerful white businessman, whose mother just happens to be a Jew who has hidden her Jewishness … and a boy from the barrio who fathers a child raised in the barrio but who eventually goes on to a triumphant assertion of his cross-cultural self.” —
World Literature Today

“
Alburquerque
fulfills two important functions: it restores the missing R to the name of the city, and it shows off Anaya's powers as a novelist.” —National Public Radio

“Anaya is at his visionary best in creating magical realist moments that connect people with one another and the earth.” —
The Review of Contemporary Fiction

“Anaya's prowess shows through on every page.… Thumbs up.” —
ABQ Arts

Tortuga

Winner of the American Book Award

“A compelling story of a young man who suffers and learns to make peace with who he is,
Tortuga
has that touch of magic, of fantastical characters, of dreams as real as sunlight, associated with the best of Chicano literature.” —
Roundup Magazine

“
Tortuga
is one those rare works that speaks to the human condition across time and space, and it well-deserves to find a new generation of readers.” —
Southwest BookViews

“A highly emotional tale of a young soul who turned from a turtle into a human all in the span of 200 pages.” —
Reviewers of Young Adult Literature

My Land Sings

Winner of the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award

“Rich in traditional Mexican and native American folklore. Every story spins its magic effectively.” —
Booklist

“Haunting. Compelling twists will keep the pages turning.” —
Publishers Weekly

“Anaya champions the reading of a good book or listening to a folktale as an opportunity to insert one's own experiences into the story and, hence, to nurture the imagination. This appealing volume will add diversity to folklore collections.” —
Booklist

“The wide variety of stories demonstrate a mature understanding of life's trappings and dangers, but retain a healthy sense of humor about the human predicament.” —
Kirkus Reviews

Serafina's Stories

“[Serafina's] stories are simple but vivid.… There is magic and mystery too.” —
Los Angeles Times

“Anaya's prose offers … purity. [
Serafina's Stories
] will restore to all but the most jaded reader a necessary sense of wonder.” —National Public Radio

“Like Serafina, Anaya is a powerful storyteller whose
cuentos
and other writings are a balm for the soul.” —
New Mexico Magazine

“It is not hard to predict that Serafina's story will be hypnotic and entertain.… With
Serafina's Stories
Anaya again reminds us of the importance of maintaining an oral tradition.” —
San Antonio Express-News

“Rudolfo Anaya is both a wise man and a gifted storyteller.
Serafina's Stories
[is] a series of engaging tales.” —
Santa Fe New Mexican

“Anaya's new book is a spellbinding account of a Native American woman who spins tales to enlighten the Spanish governor into setting her people free. Clearly conceived,
Serafina's Stories
contains 12 folk tales that are as absorbing as the main plot.” —
El Paso Times

Heart of Aztlan

“In
Heart of Aztlan
, a prose writer with the soul of poet, and a dedication to his calling that only the greatest artists ever sustain, is on an important track, the right one, the only one.” —
La Confluencia

“[
Heart of Aztlan
gives] a vivid sense of Chicano life since World War II.” —
World Literature Today

“Mixed with the Native American legends and Hispanic traditions of this wonderful book are the basic human motivations that touch all cultures. It is a rip-roaring good read.” —
Cibola Beacon

Jalamanta

“A parable for our time … We are in deep need of simple truths, of rediscovering our ancient teachings, and
Jalamanta
may provide that opportunity.” —
The Washington Post Book World

Zia Summer

“A compelling thriller … Though satisfying purely as a mystery, the novel sacrifices none of Anaya's trademark spirituality—a connectedness to the earth and a deep-seated respect for the traditions of a people and a culture.… Read this multicultural novel for its rich language and full-bodied characters. Anaya is one of our greatest storytellers, and
Zia Summer
is
muy caliente
!” —
Booklist

“[Anaya] continues to shine brightest with his trademark alchemy: blending Spanish, Mexican, and Indian cultures to evoke the distinctively fecund spiritual terrain of his part of the Southwest.” —
Publishers Weekly

Rio Grande Fall

“This is a completely entertaining mystery novel, but Anaya offers two parallel lands of enchantment. One is temporal New Mexico; the other is Nuevo Mexicano, a land of
santos, milagros
, spirits, visions, and even
brujas
(witches).” —
Booklist

Shaman Winter

“Be aware that if you only skate on the surface, you will miss the depth of the story. You have to dive head-first, literally, into the waves of poetic prose to catch a glimpse of the forces that keep our universe together.” —
La Voz

“The fast-paced story line of
Shaman Winter
is fascinating and absolutely eerie as the master paints a vivid picture of the spirituality of another culture.” —
Thrilling Detective

Jemez Spring

“
Jemez Spring
is meant to appeal to readers of conventional mystery novels, but there is nothing conventional about it.… It taps into primal and universal fears and longings but plays them out in a uniquely New Mexican setting. And the master tells his tales with worlds and images so rich and strange that it is almost as if he had invented a language of his own.” —
Los Angeles Times

“
Jemez Spring
again blends the Spanish, Mexican, and Indian cultures that made the three earlier works in the series such good reads. Anaya is at his best when writing about the people of New Mexico, their traditions and their lives and how they clash with the influx of Anglos.” —
San Antonio Express-News

“Anaya takes the reader beyond detective fiction.… His mysteries fall into the criminal and the spiritual, which makes them both inspiring and electrifying.” —
St. Petersburg Times

“Unique and exciting … Readers thirsty for philosophy and the supernatural will devour this book.” —
Daily Camera
(Boulder)

“Anaya, godfather and guru of Chicano literature, proves he's just as good in the murder mystery field.” —Tony Hillerman, author of
The Blessing Way

Tortuga

A Novel

Rudolfo Anaya

Dedicated with love to my wife, Patricia
.

She walks the path of the sun
.

She sings the songs of the moon
.

1

I awoke from a restless sleep. For a moment I couldn't remember where I was, then I heard Filomón and Clepo talking up front and I felt the wind sway the old ambulance. I tried to turn my body, but it was impossible. Upon waking it was always the same; I tried to move but the paralysis held me firmly in its grip.

I could turn my head and look out the small window. The cold winter rain was still falling. It had been only a gray drizzle when we left the hospital, but the farther south we went into the desert the sheets of icy rain became more intense. For a great part of the trip we had been surrounded by darkness. Only the flashes of lightning which tore through the sky illuminated the desolate landscape.

I had slept most of the way; the rain drumming against the ambulance and the rumble of the distant thunder lulled me to sleep. Now I blinked my eyes and remembered that we had left at daybreak, and Filomón had said that it would be mid-afternoon before we arrived at the new hospital.