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Those People Behind Us Mary Camarillo

Those People Behind Us By Mary Camarillo

Those People Behind Us by Mary Camarillo


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Summary

Beneath the affluent veneer of a Southern California housing tract, five neighbors (a realtor, an aerobics teacher, an ex-con, a Vietnam vet, and a teenage boy) confront death, betrayal, financial decline, loneliness, and encroaching fascism. Set in the politically tumultuous summer of 2017, each character searches for home and community in a neighborhood where no one can agree who belongs.

Those People Behind Us Summary

Those People Behind Us: A Novel by Mary Camarillo

It's the summer of 2017 in Wellington Beach, California, a suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices-divisions that change the lives of five neighbors.

Longtime resident and real estate agent Lisa Kensington juggles her job, her shopaholic husband, a mother-in-law who knows how to push her buttons, and teenage children with ideas of their own, all while trying to hold on to her own dreams. Her neighbor Ray Gorman is a haunted Vietnam vet who is also caring for his aging mother. Keith Nelson, an ex-con, lives in his car, parked around the corner from Ray, near his parents' house. Keith's got a job, a grandmother he loves, and a gym routine that almost helps him manage his violent tendencies. Down the street from Ray, sixteen-year-old Josh Kowalski is working through the shock of his father's abandonment by slamming on a drum set. He loves Led Zeppelin and setting things on fire and is fascinated with his friend's sister. New neighbor Jeannette Larsen, an aerobics teacher numbed by horrific tragedy, turns away from her husband-and toward sex with strangers. In the end, these characters discover that despite their differences, they are more connected than any of them could have imagined.

Those People Behind Us Reviews

Fans of Liane Moriarty will savor the raw suspense and mystery Camarillo has skillfully woven. Juxtaposed against the bright and sunny Southern California sky, this multigenerational tale takes a deep dive into the minds and motivations of a seemingly harmless neighborhood as it strips back each dark and complicated layer, piece by piece.
- Suzanne Simonetti, USA Today best-selling author of The Sound of Wings

Thoughtful and riveting. In Those People Behind Us, Mary Camarillo trains an astute yet empathetic eye on the residents of one Southern California planned community in the year 2017, dissecting the mental and emotional cracks in our foundation at the brink of the Trump era.
-Shelley Blanton-Stroud, author of Copy Boy and Tom Boy

Peyton Place with a twist of Trump.
-Eduardo Santiago, author of Tomorrow They Will Kiss and Midnight Rhumba

A fascinating and perceptive read about growth, acceptance, and understanding people different than yourself.
-Diana Wagman, author of Spontaneous and Extraordinary October

As skillfully as Elizabeth Strout and Susan Straight, Mary Camarillo captures her diverse beach town community with such precision you feel you are eavesdropping on real people's lives, with all their dreams and disappointments, faults, and frailties. Though Camarillo touches on hot topics such as homelessness, low-income housing, racism, and political differences, she lets her characters express their differing views and leaves it to her readers to draw their own conclusions. What I liked most about this beautifully crafted novel was the ultimate truth woven throughout-that despite our differences, most of us are more alike than we are different.
-Debra Thomas, author of Luz: A Novel

With vivid and colorful descriptions, Ann Marie Jackson renders a vibrant literary canvas that transports the reader to the enchanting land of Mexico's treasured San Miguel de Allende. While there, we witness the transformation of a woman who, surrounded by the strength of her close friends and community-as well as through her own focused determination-is able to rise above the pain of a broken marriage and restore her spirit to what it once was.
-Jessica Winters Mireles, author of Lost in Oaxaca

A town that could be anywhere in America.
-Leslie A. Rasmussen, author of After Happily Ever After and The Stories We Cannot Tell

About Mary Camarillo

Mary Camarillo's award-winning debut novel, The Lockhart Women, was published in June 2021 by She Writes Press. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in publications such as TAB Journal, 166 Palms, Sonora Review, and The Ear. Mary writes about living in Southern California, a place she's called home for more than fifty-five years and is still trying to understand. She had a long career with the postal service, which might be genetic-both her grandfathers were railway mail clerks. She sorted mail, sold stamps, worked in the accounting office, and went to night school, eventually earning a degree in business administration, a CPA license, and a Certificate in Internal Auditing. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Citric Acid, An Orange County Online Literary Arts Quarterly, and LibroMobile, An Arts Cooperative and Bookstore. Mary lives with her husband who plays ukulele, and their terrorist cat Riley, who makes frequent appearances on Instagram in Huntington Beach, California.

Additional information

NGR9781647425654
9781647425654
1647425654
Those People Behind Us: A Novel by Mary Camarillo
New
Paperback
She Writes Press
2023-10-10
320
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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Customer Reviews - Those People Behind Us