Mecca by Susan Straight

 

In this novel, the reader meets a variety of individuals who live in Southern California.  Some are recent immigrants from Mexico and other countries in Central or South America.  Some are families with Latino backgrounds who have been in the area longer than the English pioneers who came to settle the land.  Some are police, some are criminals.  Some live in poverty, some are rich through work or luck.  

The individual stories wrap around and the reader may become confused where the book is going.  Yet as it progresses, the stories often merge and events that happened twenty years ago play out in the present.  Other stories are just beginning and no one knows if they will have connections to the other ones.

Susan Straight is a native California from the area she writes about.  Her work has gained awards with past works being named an NPR Book Of The Year and a National Book Award finalist.  I listened to this book with its multiple narrators.  Each did a good job although I think an added layer of richness would have applied if those presenting the story of recent immigrants had that accent.  Readers will learn about the land and its people, often in ways never considered.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.