June 2010 Debut of the Month.

Totally unsentimental this is nonetheless an exceptionally moving story that is full of insight and written with a rare tenderness. Two boys in desperate situations come together one summer in St Anthony’s Home. Pancho’s one ambition is track down and kill his sister’s murderer. But his plans are changed when he is made carer for a boy dying of brain cancer. D.Q certainly makes the best of the life that is left to him and gradually, his positive attitude in turn effects Pancho who begins to see things differently.

Synopsis

When Pancho arrives at St. Anthony's Home, he knows his time there will be short. If his plans succeed, he'll soon be arrested for the murder of his sister's killer. But then he's assigned to hep DQ, whose brain cancer has slowed neither his spirit nor his mouth. DQ tells Pancho all about his 'Death Warrior's Manifesto', which will help him to live out his last days fully - ideally, he says with the love of the beautiful Marisol. As Pancho tracks down his sister's murderer, he finds himself falling under the influence of DQ and Marisol, and beginning to understand that there's more to life than revenge and more to death than sadness.

About the Author

Francisco X. Stork is the author of Marcelo in the Real World, Behind the Eyes and The Way of the Jaguar, which Publishers Weekly praised as "a splendidly intense debut." Stork attended Spring Hill College, where he majored in English Literature and Philosophy.  He received a Danforth Fellowship and attended graduate school at Harvard University where he studied Latin American Literature.  After four years at Harvard, he attended Columbia Law School, having decided he would make his living as a lawyer without abandoning his plan to write fiction.   Francisco X. Stork lives near Boston, Massachusetts and is a practicing attorney. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation