The Rain God

“A lost masterpiece that helped launch a legion of writers . . . May it win many new readers.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, New York Times–bestselling author

“Rivers, rivulets, fountains and waters flow, but never return to their joyful beginnings; anxiously they hasten on to the vast realms of the Rain God.”

A beloved Southwestern classic—as beautiful, subtle and profound as the desert itself—Arturo Islas’s The Rain God is a breathtaking masterwork of contemporary literature.

Set in a fictional small town on the Texas-Mexico border, it tells the funny, sad and quietly outrageous saga of the children and grandchildren of Mama Chona the indomitable matriarch of the Angel clan who fled the bullets and blood of the 1911 revolution for a gringo land of promise. In bold creative strokes, Islas paints an unforgettable family portrait of souls haunted by ghosts and madness—sinners torn by loves, lusts and dangerous desires. From gentle hearts plagued by violence and epic delusions to a child who can foretell the coming of rain in the sweet scent of angels, here is a rich and poignant tale of outcasts struggling to live and die with dignity . . . and to hold onto their past while embracing an unsteady future.

“A masterpiece.” —Sandra Padilla, El Paso Herald-Post

“The Rain God is in all ways a very beautiful book.” —Janet Lewis, author of The Wife of Martin Guerre

“I know of no other Chicano writer who has come so close to creating a classic in the deepest meaning of American realism.” —Fernando Alegría, novelist, chairman of Spanish Department, Stanford University