cover image A Good Map of All Things

A Good Map of All Things

Alberto Álvaro Ríos. Univ. of Arizona, $18.95 trade paper (248p) ISBN 978-0-8165-4103-4

Poet Ríos’s marvelous debut novel in stories (after the collection Not Go Away Is My Name) follows characters who are guided by their wits through humorous picaresque adventures in a small unnamed town in the high Sonoran Desert. Set in the mid-20th century, the stories explore the introduction of modern technology and medicine to an Indigenous community that still believes in the power of ritual and herbal medicine. “Dr. Bartolomeo’s Cure” follows an idealistic doctor who forms the Forward Science Society with a builder friend; their public conversations alienate their fellow townspeople. Miguel Torres, a leading citizen, grew up poor and found success buying and selling real estate. After his dog, Bernardo, is hit by a car, the dog’s recovery unites the town in joy. Tales of young lovers (“Butter, Oranges, and Pink Coconut Candy”) are intermixed with accounts of unbearable loss (“The Night Miguel Torres Died”). Ríos brings levity to his account of the townspeople’s struggles to find work and hold onto love and family, as when people tell their deepest sorrows and hopes to Bernardo and a cow named Paquita in “Bernardo’s Corrido.” Ríos’s finely crafted chronicle brings great depth to the vicissitudes of life in a small Mexican village. (Oct.)