The Five Wounds

Review An unputdownable novel, The Five Wounds takes my breath away with its intimate, humorous and heart-aching portrayal of a New Mexican family. -- Yiyun Li, author of Must I Go Incredibly well crafted ... captures both the strength and fragility of relationships and existence and the resilience and great power of love and belief. -- A. M. Homes, author of May We Be Forgiven Luminous and memorable ... Just as the pacing is perfect, so too are the tact and care with which each scene is made. -- Colm Tóibín, author of House of Names Kirstin Valdez Quade writes with exquisite precision about the fragility and resilience of the Amadeo family... I loved The Five Wounds, which reminded me that growing pains are not confined to adolescence -- Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! The acclaimed author of Nights at the Fiestas returns with a gorgeously written, Franzen-caliber tale of one Latinx family's via dolorosa. ― Oprah Magazine's Best Books of 2021 In this cruel and divisive era, Kirstin Valdez Quade has brought healing and regeneration with The Five Wounds. It is bracing and wise, and it breaks us in the best ways. Then builds back up again. It should find many grateful readers. -- Luis Alberto Urrea, author of House of Broken Angels I don't remember ever reading a novel as vibrant and warm as The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade. Just a few pages in, I felt like I intimately knew the characters, and cared about them as if they family members. It's both heartbreaking and a joy to read! -- Lara Vapnyar, author of Divide Me by Zero With deep empathy, fierce intelligence, and subtle wit, Kirstin Valdez Quade has crafted an indelible portrait of a family living in precarity. The characters in The Five Wounds are so vivid, their struggles, failures, and grasping efforts towards love and redemption so finely wrought, and each page full of such immaculate prose, that I read this novel with ever-increasing breathless urgency. -- Phil Klay, author of Redeployment Product Description Winner of The Center for Fiction's 2021 First Novel Prize 'A gorgeously written, Franzen-calibre tale' O Magazine In this vivid, darkly funny and beautifully rendered debut novel, Kirstin Valdez Quade brings to life the struggles of five generations of the Padilla family. Amadeo, struggling to stay off the bottle, Angel, his pregnant fifteen-year-old daughter, Yolanda, the family matriarch, reeling from a recent discovery, Angel's mother, who Angel isn't speaking to and Tío Tive, keeper of the family's history. But amid the challenges they face individually and together, it is Connor, Angel's baby, who might just be the one to save the family from themselves. Book Description From an award-winning storyteller comes a stunning debut novel following one family's extraordinary year of love and sacrifice. About the Author Kirstin Valdez Quade is the author of Night at the Fiestas, winner of the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. The recipient of a "5 Under 35" award from the National Book Foundation, she teaches at Princeton University.