Mecca Av Susan Straight

<p><b>“A wide and deep view of a dynamic, multiethnic Southern California . . . Susan Straight is an essential voice in American writing and in writing of the West.” —<i>The New York Times Book Review</i></b><br><br><b>Named a most anticipated book of March 2022 by the <i>Los Angeles Times, USA Today,</i> and <i>Alta</i><br><br>From the National Book Award finalist Susan Straight, <i>Mecca</i> is a stunning epic tracing the intertwined lives of native Californians fighting for life and land<br><br></b>Johnny Frías has California in his blood. A descendant of the state’s indigenous people and Mexican settlers, he has Southern California’s forgotten towns and canyons in his soul. He spends his days as a highway patrolman pulling over speeders, ignoring their racist insults, and pushing past the trauma of his rookie year, when he killed a man assaulting a young woman named Bunny, who ran from the scene, leaving Johnny without a witness. But like the Santa Ana winds that every year bring the risk of fire, Johnny’s moment of action twenty years ago sparked a slow-burning chain of connections that unites a vibrant, complex cast of characters in ways they never see coming.<br><br> In <i>Mecca</i>, the celebrated novelist Susan Straight crafts an unforgettable American epic, examining race, history, family, and destiny through the interlocking stories of a group of native Californians all gasping for air. With sensitivity, furor, and a cinematic scope that captures California in all its injustice, history, and glory, she tells a story of the American West through the eyes of the people who built it—and continue to sustain it. As the stakes get higher and the intertwined characters in <i>Mecca </i>slam against barrier after barrier, they find that when push comes to shove, it’s always better to push back.</p>