Keynote
Shimmering stories set in California’s Central Valley, the first book in a decade from a virtuoso story writer
Book Title
The Consequences
Subtitle
Stories
Cover Image
- Winner of the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize
Finalist for the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize
Longlisted for the 2022 Story Prize
Body
“Her immediate concern was money.” So begins the first story in Manuel Muñoz’s dazzling new collection. In it, Delfina has moved from Texas to California’s Central Valley with her husband and small son, and her isolation and desperation force her to take a risk that ends in profound betrayal.
These exquisite stories are mostly set in the 1980s in the small towns that surround Fresno. With an unflinching hand, Muñoz depicts the Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers who put food on our tables but are regularly and ruthlessly rounded up by the migra, as well as the quotidian struggles and immense challenges faced by their families. The messy and sometimes violent realities navigated by his characters—straight and gay, immigrant and American-born, young and old—are tempered by moments of surprising, tender care: Two young women meet on a bus to Los Angeles to retrieve husbands who must find their way back from the border after being deported; a gay couple plans a housewarming party that reveals buried class tensions; a teenage mother slips out to a carnival where she encounters the father of her child; the foreman of a crew of fruit pickers finds a dead body and is subsequently—perhaps literally—haunted.
In The Consequences, obligation can shape, support, and sometimes derail us. It’s a magnificent new book from a gifted writer at the height of his powers.
These exquisite stories are mostly set in the 1980s in the small towns that surround Fresno. With an unflinching hand, Muñoz depicts the Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers who put food on our tables but are regularly and ruthlessly rounded up by the migra, as well as the quotidian struggles and immense challenges faced by their families. The messy and sometimes violent realities navigated by his characters—straight and gay, immigrant and American-born, young and old—are tempered by moments of surprising, tender care: Two young women meet on a bus to Los Angeles to retrieve husbands who must find their way back from the border after being deported; a gay couple plans a housewarming party that reveals buried class tensions; a teenage mother slips out to a carnival where she encounters the father of her child; the foreman of a crew of fruit pickers finds a dead body and is subsequently—perhaps literally—haunted.
In The Consequences, obligation can shape, support, and sometimes derail us. It’s a magnificent new book from a gifted writer at the height of his powers.
List Price
$17.00
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About the Author
Upcoming Events
VIRTUAL: Manuel Muñoz (THE CONSEQUENCES) in conversation with John Freedom for California Book Club
Date:
Location:
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This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Register here to receive the Zoom link.
Praise
- “Muñoz’s prose is shining and hypnotic, and suffused with care and tenderness. This is one of the best short story collections to come around in recent years.”—Michael Schaub, NPR.org
- “Hauntingly simple. . . . In these surprising, vivid stories, worries are deeply felt but not often spoken aloud, and obligation to kin and the need to survive outweigh much else.”—The Atlantic, “10 Most Thought-Provoking Books of 2022”
- “This collection pushes the reader to appreciate life’s small moments of unexpected tenderness with fresh eyes.”—Brenda Peynado, The New York Times Book Review
- “Simply put, Muñoz’s stories are as observant as they are revealing — full of nuanced subtext and bracingly honest depictions of vulnerability and hope, love and regret, and everything in between. They deserve all the attention they can get.”—Alexis Burling, San Francisco Chronicle
