The Virgin's Guide to Mexico

A novel about crossing the border in the opposite direction: from wealthy, suburban Texas into the wild heart of Mexico. Alma Price is seventeen - she's smart, she's angry, and she's going to Mexico. Her grandfather lives there, or so she thinks, although it's hard to know what's true with a lying mother who raised her amongst the blond brigade of their rich Texas neighborhood. Sick of suburbia, Alma hops a bus, crosses the border, gets a disguise, and winds through the thugs and witches and whores, ultimately disappearing in the heart of Mexico City. Her parents, Hermelinda and Truitt, are right behind her, swerving their big SUV around hallucinogenic cacti and through herds of wild pigs, trying to save their daughter and maybe even their marriage. But in her effort to bring her daughter home to Texas, Hermelinda finds that Mexico is slowly drawing her back in, reminding her of who she is and where she's from, and just maybe leading her toward a reconciliation with both her past and her estranged daughter. Confident, vicious, funny, and filled with the wild leaps of imagination, The Virgin's Guide to Mexico unleashes the full arsenal of an explosive, daring writer. About the author: Eric B. Martin wrote The Virgin's Guide to Mexico from 2001-2006 in Mexico City and California. Raised in Maine, he was educated in Austin, Durham, and Quito, Ecuador. He has worked on vineyards, beer trucks, tobacco fields, and in homeless shelters. The recent recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, he is the author of the novels Luck and Winners, which was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. He lives in San Francisco on the corner of Mission and Cesar Chavez. The Virgin's Guide to Mexico is his most recent novel.