Drowning Tucson

Hi-def, brutally honest tales from the streets of Tucson.

Set in Tucson’s toughest neighborhoods during the late 1980s, this riveting debut follows the disintegration of the Nuñez family and the people whose paths they cross. From young gangbangers to crooked cops, and from murderous vigilantes to prostitutes plying their trade along the “Miracle Mile,” each character’s destiny is linked by crushing poverty, the brutal codes of the street, and the harsh nature of the desert.

In this small city with major metropolis problems—a place of both drought and flood—“civilization” is every bit as dangerous as its surroundings. Like a southwest version of HBO’s The Wire, this heartrending novel is an episodic portrait of a desperate, violent America, populated by characters as lethal as they are sympathetic.