Benjamin Alire Sáenz

A "mesmerizing, poetic exploration of family, friendship, love and loss" from the acclaimed author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. (New York Times Book Review) Sal used to know his place with his adoptive gay father, their loving Mexican American family, and his best friend, Samantha. But it's senior year, and suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and realizing he no longer knows himself. If Sal's not who he thought he was, who is he? This humor-infused, warmly humane look at universal questions of belonging is a triumph.

Aristoteles er en vred ung mand med en bror, der sidder i fængsel. Dante er den type, der ved alt, og som har en usædvanlig tilgang til livet. Da de to mødes tilfældigt, har de ved første indtryk ikke noget til fælles. Men da de begynder at tilbringe tid sammen, opdager de, at de har et helt særligt venskab – af den slags, der forandrer liv og varer for evigt. Sammen lærer de de allervigtigste sandheder om sig selv og om hvem, de gerne vil være. Aristoteles og Dante opdager universets hemmeligheder er allerede en ny-klassiker i YA-litteraturen.

A warmly humane look at universal questions of belonging, infused with humour, from the bestselling author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

A heartfelt novel from the award-winning author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. On the surface, Ramiro Lopez and Jake Upthegrove couldn’t live more different lives. Ram is Mexican-American, lives in the poor section of town and is doing his best to keep his mother sane while his brother fights off a drug-induced coma. Jake is a WASP who drives a nice car, lives in a mansion and has a mother who drinks a bit too much and a step-father who cheats on her. But there is one point, one issue, where their lives are exactly the same; their fathers walked out on them when they were just young boys. And at this convergence, Ram and Jake see how everything in their lives is just a little bit similar, because they both blame everything that goes wrong on the one thing they actually have in common.

A major Latino writer’s intimate but healing journey through addiction, human desire and broken love. From "He Leaves a Message in the Middle of the Night"He loved beerand crack. He loved heroin, ecstasy, the sad musicof the bars. He said he loved you too. You arethinking of the night you met him. Late October night, the breeze as soft as his black eyes. He wasso hungry for trouble. You were so hungryfor anything that resembled love. Your fingertracing the tattoos on his chest, you dreamedof living in the prison of his arms. But you refusedto live in the prison of his deadly nights. Youcan’t survive without the morninglight. You repeat this again and again:He’s a man, not an illness. Tattoos and prison. Novels and poems. A bird can love a fish but they can’tlive in your apartment. He called again last nightand left a message that was meant to wound. He said: I want to know what you meant whenyou said I love you. You said: I love you. I meant I love you. He said: I want to know what you meant whenyou said goodbye. You said: Goodbye. I meant goodbye. You whispered his name in the dark. Benjamin Alire Sáenz in 2013 won the Pen/Faulkner Award and the Lambda Award for his book Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club. His young adult novel Dante and Aristotle in Paradise was a 2013 Printz Honoree. He lives in El Paso, Texas.

American Book Award - Premio PEN/Faulkner - Lambda Literary Award - Stonewall Book Award - Michael L. Printz Honor Book - Premio Pura Belpr Para todos aquellos que han tenido que aprender a jugar con otras reglas. Arist teles es introvertido y t mido. Dante es transparente y expresivo. Por motivos que parecen escapar a toda raz n, estos dos chicos de diecisiete a os se encuentran y construyen una amistad entra able que les permitir redefinir el mundo del otro y aprender a creer en ellos mismos para descubrir los secretos del universo. El escritor multipremiado, Benjamin Alire S enz, explora la lealtad y la confianza entre dos j venes que est n aprendiendo a ser adultos en un escenario fronterizo tan mexicano como estadounidense. Juntos deber n crecer al mismo tiempo en que se adaptan a una sociedad que tambi n est en permanente b squeda de identidad. ENGLISH DESCRIPTIONAmerican Book Award - PEN/Faulkner Award - Lambda Literary Award - Stonewall Book Award - Michael L. Printz Honor Book - Pura Belpr AwardFor all those who have had to learn to play by different rules. Aristotle is introverted and shy. Dante is transparent and expressive. For reasons that seem beyond all reason, these two seventeen-year-old boys meet and form an endearing friendship that will allow them to redefine each other's world and learn to believe in themselves to discover the secrets of the universe. The multi-award-winning writer, Benjamin Alire S enz, explores loyalty and trust between two young men who are learning to become adults in a border setting that is as Mexican as it is American. Together they must grow while adapting to a society that is also in a constant search for identity.

This Printz Honor Book is a “tender, honest exploration of identity” (Publishers Weekly) that distills lyrical truths about family and friendship. Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When they meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the two loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special kind of friendship--the kind of friendship that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through their friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves--and about the kind of people they want to be.

Winner of the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction! Benjamin Alire Sáenz's stories reveal how all borders?real, imagined, sexual, human, the line between dark and light, addict and straight?entangle those who live on either side. Take, for instance, the Kentucky Club on Avenida Juárez two blocks south of the Rio Grande. It's a touchstone for each of Sáenz's stories. His characters walk by, they might go in for a drink or to score, or they might just stay there for a while and let their story be told. Sáenz knows that the Kentucky Club, like special watering holes in all cities, is the contrary to borders. It welcomes Spanish and English, Mexicans and gringos, poor and rich, gay and straight, drug addicts and drunks, laughter and sadness, and even despair. It's a place of rich history and good drinks and cold beer and a long polished mahogany bar. Some days it smells like piss. "I'm going home to the other side." That's a strange statement, but you hear it all the time at the Kentucky Club. Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a highly regarded writer of fiction, poetry, and children's literature. Like these stories, his writing crosses borders and lands in our collective psyche. Poets & Writers Magazine named him one of the fifty most inspiring writers in the world. He's been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN Center's prestigious award for young adult fiction. Sáenz is the chair of the creative writing department of University of Texas at El Paso. Awards:PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionLambda Literary AwardSouthwest Book Award

Diego and his sister Gabriela argue over their new dog Sofie. But it's only when Sofie gets really sick that they find out who their tortilla-loving pup really belongs to. This is a bilingual book for kids and dogs and even their parents. Once again, Benjamin Alire Saenz shows he understands the chemistry and dynamics of family, this time with a dog stirring up the recipe. Little Diego and Gabriela first appeared in Saenz and Geronimo Garcia's best-selling title A Gift from Papa Diego." Garcia's signature folk-inspired, sculpted clay illustrations depict a lovably goofy little mutt; rounded shapes-heads, dog bed, tortillas and more-combine with a warm palette to create a cozy, comforting atmosphere that reflects the traditions of Mexican-American family life described in the dual English/Spanish narrative. A universal message with a Latino flavor." Kirkus"Saenz's text almost makes the book read like a short story one that ably portrays mischievous sibling dynamics, a love of animals and the ways families come together during difficult times. Set against colorful solid backdrops, Garcia's clay artwork has an appropriately homey quality that keeps the focus on the siblings and their beloved pet." Publishers Weekly"A captivating bilingual book with close family relationships and unconditional love at its core." Library JournalBenjamin Alire Saenz received three starred Publishers Weekly reviews in 2008 one for his young adult novel He Forgot to Say Goodbye (Simon & Schuster) and two for his illustrated book A Perfect Season for Dreaming (Cinco Puntos Press). Long at the forefront of the emerging Latino literature in the United States, he has received both the Wallace Stegner and Lannan fellowships, and he is a recipient of the American Book Award. His young adult novel Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood was named one of the Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults in 2005.

Last Night I Sang to the Monster was chosen as one of the Top Ten YA Books of Fiction in 2010. Zach is eighteen, bright, and articulate. He's also an alcoholic, in rehab instead of high school, but he doesn't remember how he got there. What's up with that?

Now a major motion picture starring Max Pelayo, Reese Gonzales, and Eva Longoria A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) A lyrical novel about family and friendship from critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire S enz. Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship--the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

It is 1969, America is at war, "Hollywood" is a dirt-poor Chicano barrio in small-town America, and Sammy and Juliana face a world of racism, war in Vietnam, and barrio violence. Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood is a Young Adult Library Services Association Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Young Adults. Benjamin Alire Saenz--novelist, poet, and writer of children's books--was named one of the "Fifty Most Inspiring Authors in the World" by Poets & Writers magazine. He was also a finalist for PEN/USA's literary award for children's and young adult literature. Saenz lives in El Paso, Texas.

"To write well about your life, you need to have a life worth writing about. On that score, S enz hits pay dirt." --Booklist"A former Catholic priest, this poet creates prayerful verse that is at once mystical and utterly human." --The Washington PostPoet, novelist, and popular YA writer Benjamin Alire S enz writes to the core truth of life's ever-shifting memories. Set along the Mexican border, the contrast between the desert's austere beauty and the brutality of border politics mirrors humanity's capacity for both generosity and cruelty. In his numbered series "Meditation on Living in the Desert," S enz turns to memory, heritage, and a host of literary progenitors as he directly confronts matters of faith, civil rights, and contemporary politics--always with the unrelenting moral urge to speak truth and do something. I am looking at a book of photographs. The photographs document the exodus of Mexicans crossing the desert. I am staring at the face of a woman who is more a girl than a woman. She is handing her documents to a government official. I know and you know and we all know that the documents are forged. The official is not in the photograph. Only the frightened eyes of a girl. A former Catholic priest who worked with Mother Teresa, Benjamin Alire S enz has published five books of poetry, four novels, a collection of short stories, and two bilingual children's books. He received the American Book Award and teaches in the bilingual MFA program at University of Texas, El Paso.

"Ben Saenz's vivid imagination captures all that is beautiful, agonizing and redemptive in the crossings we make through borders of geography and culture. But it is in the interior journeys of the psyche and the soul that we must find salvation; Saenz's brilliant prose penetrates to that core and he finds and exposes that truth. A reader can ask for no more than this: to be spellbound by a story, and to come to the last page with a sense of having been being changed and allowed to carry something of it away." --Abraham Verghese, author of My Own CountryFrom award-winning poet Benjamin Alire S enz comes a haunting novel depicting the cruelties of cultural displacement and the resilience of those who are left in its aftermath. In Perfect Light is the story of two strong-willed people who are forever altered by a single tragedy. After And s Segovia's parents are killed in a car accident when he is still a young boy, his older brother decides to steal the family away to Ju rez, Mexico. That decision, made with the best intentions, sets into motion the unraveling of an American family. Years later, his family destroyed, And s is left to make sense of the chaos--but he is ill-equipped to make sense of his life. He begins a dark journey toward self-destruction, his talent and brilliance brought down by the weight of a burden too frightening and maddening to bear alone. The manifestation of this frustration is a singular rage that finds an outlet in a dark and seedy El Paso bar--leading him improbably to Grace Delgado. Recently confronted with her own sense of isolation and mortality, Grace is an unlikely angel, a therapist who agrees to treat And s after he is arrested in the United States. The two are suspicious of each other, yet they slowly arrive at a tentative working relationship that allows each of them to examine his and her own fragile and damaged past. With the urgent, unflinching vision of a true storyteller and the precise, arresting language of a poet, S enz's In Perfect Light bears witness to the cruelty of circumstance and, more than offering escape, the novel offers the possibility of salvation.

"A book of great lyrical power, Names on a Map is a heartbreaking mirror for our own time, about an American family torn apart by an unjust war. In Ben Saenz' dexterous, tender hands, this novel is a salve upon the wounds of both then and now." --Ruben Martinez, award winning author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant TrailA haunting novel from award-winning author and poet Benjamin Alire Saenz, about a family of Hispanic immigrants handling the psychological effects of a war they don't feel is theirs to fight In 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, the Espejo family of El Paso, Texas, is just like thousands of other American families coping with a war they feel does not concern them. When Gustavo, the eldest son--the "bad boy" of the family--is told to report for basic training, his ideology and sense of patriotism is put to the test. Opting to flee to Mexico and avoid the draft, Gustavo soon realizes he is no more culturally connected to his ancestral homeland than he is to the America that called him to war. Poignant and insightful, Names on a Map explores with complex detail the harsh nature of immigrant life in the United States--and the emotional tug-of-war experienced by all those with allegiance to more than one country.

"Sentimental and ferocious, upsetting and tender, firmly magic-realist yet utterly modern. . . S enz is a writer with greatness in him." --San Diego Union TribuneWith Carry Me Like Water, Benjamin Alire S enz unfolds a beautiful story about hope and forgiveness, unexpected reunions, an expanded definition of family, and, ultimately, what happens when the disparate worlds of pain and privilege collide. Diego, a deaf-mute, is barely surviving on the border in El Paso, Texas. Diego's sister, Helen, who lives with her husband in the posh suburbs of San Francisco, long ago abandoned both her brother and her El Paso roots. Helen's best friend, Lizzie, a nurse in an AIDS ward, begins to uncover her own buried past after a mystical encounter with a patient. This immensely moving novel confronts divisions of race, gender, and class, fusing together the stories of people who come to recognize one another from former lives they didn't know existed-- or that they tried to forget.