Last Flight of José Luis Balboa

"Captivating" short stories set in vibrant, multicultural Miami (Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents). This collection of short fiction, a winner of the Bakeless Prize, captures the international hub city of Miami, Florida, in all its roiling guises—from the opulence of South Beach to the ferocity of Little Havana. Introducing us to a wide range of unforgettable characters—an unscrupulous newscaster, a Lincoln Road bar manager, a beautiful but cruel teenage heartbreaker, and the title character, a suicidal Latin pop star—in situations that teem with humor and brutality, absurdity and poignancy, this remarkable debut offers a vivid portrait of a city defined by a blur of cultures. "Engaging, funny, highly enjoyable . . . These stories draw you in." —Francine Prose, author of Reading Like a Writer