Mecca Susan Straight by Susan Straight 9780374604523, 0374604525 instant download after payment.

"A sweeping and kaleidoscopic work... This is a novel that pushes back against the clichés of Southern California to reveal the complex human territory underneath."  -  Kirkus Reviews

Johnny Frías has California in his blood. A descendant of the state’s Indigenous people and Mexican settlers, he has Southern California’s forgotten towns and canyons in his soul. He spends his days as a highway patrolman pulling over speeders, ignoring their racist insults, and pushing past the trauma of his rookie year, when he killed a man assaulting a young woman named Bunny, who ran from the scene, leaving Johnny without a witness.

But like the Santa Ana winds that every year bring the risk of fire, Johnny’s moment of action twenty years ago sparked a slow-burning chain of connections that unites a vibrant, complex cast of characters in ways they never see coming.

"... a big-hearted and often wrenching saga... The act of listening and the powerful precision of language surface again and again in Mecca... Straight never shies away from large themes and historical significance across varied time periods... Here, as in all her books, she elevates the lives of extraordinary everyday people whose lives speak to a universal fragility and pride..."  -  Lauren Leblanc, The Boston Globe

With sensitivity, furore, and a cinematic scope that captures California in all its injustice, history, and glory, Susan Straight tells a story of the American West through the eyes of the people who built it — and continue to sustain it.