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North of the Mexican border, freedom has a price.
Teresa sells souvenirs and helps care for her father’s fighting roosters in Centro—the heart of Nogales. When Teresa’s mother receives a letter from a friend assuring haven from her troubled marriage, she takes twelve-year-old Teresa and her sisters north, into the bone littered Sonoran Desert where the most dangerous predators drive cars, rob desperate travelers of hope, and sell the naïve to the highest bidders. Their hopes of a new life swept away by a storm, Teresa and her sisters can’t return to Mexico, so following a hand drawn map, they forge on through the wasteland. Three decades earlier, unmarried mother, Ana leaves her job at the convent in Centro to cook for a wealthy couple who’ve promised a privileged existence in Arizona. Ana is lured into an unimaginable barter to support herself and her children. In intertwined stories a generation apart, Ana and Teresa are catapulted into a morbid tale of corruption, deceit, and indoctrination where money and power write rules no one dares to question. Girls from Centro yanks back a tangled tapestry to expose a maze of conflicting heroic and evil characters, murky secrets, skeletons, and sacrifice in a spell binding, unstoppable dash to a rewarding, and unforgettable finale. |
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“Juni Fisher has written a story as bold as breaking news headlines covering the tragic perils of hopeful, honest emigrants lost in border deserts in search of a better life in the United States. The reader will have to turn pages quickly to figure out and follow the maze of conflicting characters, both heroic and evil, in a spell-binding dash to the final five words. There is more than one dramatic movie in this book set in abusive American ranch lands, unholy Catholic orphanages and frightening cults of early day Mormonism.” — Warren Lerude, Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist
“ . . . an engaging and fast-moving ride in the company of memorable characters, both good and bad, across a troubling social, cultural, historical and still timely landscape.” — Tom Strelich, New York Journal of Books
“These gripping parallel stories are straight up and honest to the bone. I found each character saturated with an authenticity I have rarely run across in border stories. Juni has a savage eye for sharp detail that kind of takes your breath away. It also kind of pisses me off, but that’s the envy talking.” — Bob Boze Bell, Author, Illustrator and Executive Editor, True West magazine
“Juni Fisher’s superb tale of love, betrayal, tragedy, and triumph, though set in the recent past, is as vivid and relevant as today’s headlines from the Arizona border. Beautifully written and ingeniously structured, it is a slam-dunk winner.” — Ranger Doug Green, author and entertainer (Riders In the Sky)
“This may be Fisher’s debut novel, but this is not the last we will hear from her. Many people talk about writing a book “someday.” This talented author sat down and did it, and did it well. She is a powerful storyteller with an interesting twist of imagination. Readers from all walks of life will find something to love about those girls from Centro who are just trying to get by, trying to make a life. I look forward to having more Fisher books on my shelf.” — Amy M Hale, award-winning author of Rightful Place, Winter of Beauty, The Story Is the Thing, and Ordinary Skin: Essays from Willow Springs
“I was hooked on the six not-rhyming, but poetic, lines introducing Chapter 1 describing Nogales as having ‘one ample buttock on Arizona’ and ‘the other on Sonora.’ And, ‘the gateway rests between those fleshy parts.’ The pithy, vivid prose pictures hinting at the essence of each chapter are alone well worth the price. I don’t do tequila shots, but I imagine them being something like that. Getting to know the characters Fisher so skillfully creates is fun and disturbing and ultimately inspirational. I agree with the comparison to Handmaid’s Tale in another review.” — Dave Martin, Record Producer
“Chilling and compelling. I read the entire book in one sitting! A well written book that brings the border and the cultures on either side to life through prose and poetry. Life can be horrific on either side of the border, as the characters slowly discover, and there is a high price to pay for what appeared at first to be freedom. Juni Fisher has written a timely book and it is a must read for anyone watching the border crisis today.” — Marcia Matthieu
“ . . . an engaging and fast-moving ride in the company of memorable characters, both good and bad, across a troubling social, cultural, historical and still timely landscape.” — Tom Strelich, New York Journal of Books
“These gripping parallel stories are straight up and honest to the bone. I found each character saturated with an authenticity I have rarely run across in border stories. Juni has a savage eye for sharp detail that kind of takes your breath away. It also kind of pisses me off, but that’s the envy talking.” — Bob Boze Bell, Author, Illustrator and Executive Editor, True West magazine
“Juni Fisher’s superb tale of love, betrayal, tragedy, and triumph, though set in the recent past, is as vivid and relevant as today’s headlines from the Arizona border. Beautifully written and ingeniously structured, it is a slam-dunk winner.” — Ranger Doug Green, author and entertainer (Riders In the Sky)
“This may be Fisher’s debut novel, but this is not the last we will hear from her. Many people talk about writing a book “someday.” This talented author sat down and did it, and did it well. She is a powerful storyteller with an interesting twist of imagination. Readers from all walks of life will find something to love about those girls from Centro who are just trying to get by, trying to make a life. I look forward to having more Fisher books on my shelf.” — Amy M Hale, award-winning author of Rightful Place, Winter of Beauty, The Story Is the Thing, and Ordinary Skin: Essays from Willow Springs
“I was hooked on the six not-rhyming, but poetic, lines introducing Chapter 1 describing Nogales as having ‘one ample buttock on Arizona’ and ‘the other on Sonora.’ And, ‘the gateway rests between those fleshy parts.’ The pithy, vivid prose pictures hinting at the essence of each chapter are alone well worth the price. I don’t do tequila shots, but I imagine them being something like that. Getting to know the characters Fisher so skillfully creates is fun and disturbing and ultimately inspirational. I agree with the comparison to Handmaid’s Tale in another review.” — Dave Martin, Record Producer
“Chilling and compelling. I read the entire book in one sitting! A well written book that brings the border and the cultures on either side to life through prose and poetry. Life can be horrific on either side of the border, as the characters slowly discover, and there is a high price to pay for what appeared at first to be freedom. Juni Fisher has written a timely book and it is a must read for anyone watching the border crisis today.” — Marcia Matthieu
Other Books by Juni Fisher
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