All That Rises

A Novel

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In the border city of El Paso, Texas, two guardedly neighboring families have plunged headlong into a harrowing week. Rose Marie DuPre, wife and mother, has abandoned her family. On the doorstep of the Gonzales home, long-lost rebel Inez appears. As Rose Marie’s husband, Huck (manager of a maquiladora), and Inez’s brother, Jerry (a college professor), struggle separately with the new shape of their worlds, Lourdes, the Mexican maid who works in both homes, finds herself entangled in the lives of her employers, even as she grapples with a teenage daughter who only has eyes for el otro lado—life, American style.

What follows is a story in which mysteries are unraveled, odd alliances are forged, and the boundaries between lives blur in destiny-changing ways—all in a place where the physical border between two countries is as palpable as it is porous, and the legacies of history are never far away. There are no easy solutions to the issues the characters face in this story, and their various realities—as undocumented workers, Border Patrol agents, the American supervisor of a Mexican factory employing an impoverished workforce—never play out against a black-and-white moral canvas. Instead, they are complex human beings with sometimes messy lives who struggle to create a place for themselves in a part of the world like no other, even as they are forced to confront the lives they have made.

All That Rises is about secrets, lies, border politics, and discovering where you belong—within a family, as well as in the world beyond. It is a novel for the times we live in, set in a place many people know only from the news.

"A serious novel, All That Rises eclipses social and political ideologies and examines how the contradictions of America’s southern border take root in its families."—Willem Marx, Foreword Reviews

“I first met Alma García at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. I knew her work would be important, and now All That Rises proves it. Alma brings it and gives it all. Enhorabuena, novelista. An auspicious debut.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Good Night, Irene

“Expansive and well grounded, All That Rises shines as a novel willing to trace its fingers into the highest and darkest branches of the family tree. García gives us an astounding panoply of characters—funny, wounded, smart, and proud—all of them striving to understand how families can nurture the strength of their roots only through hard-won honesty. An immersive and compassionate first novel.” —Manuel Muñoz, author of The Consequences

“Beautiful, outrageous, and beguiling.” —Helena María Viramontes, author of Their Dogs Came with Them

“All That Rises introduces us to a refreshing new voice in Latinx literature. With empathy and grace, Alma García has mapped the borderlands in a bold new way. The result is a novel of stark originality populated by characters whose lives readers won’t easily forget.” —Alex Espinoza, author of Still Water Saints

"A remarkable work of fiction. Alma García has skillfully woven an engaging story of a modern American family redolent with the themes of the border, the Rio Grande remaining an Archimedian point in every character’s lives and choices from living in El Paso. Garcia truly understands how the imprint of a life lived in two cultures at once can never leave you. A wonderful accomplishment."—Domingo Martinez, author of The Boy Kings of Texas

The University of Arizona Press

All That Rises

A Novel

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