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“A touching portrait of female friendship and valor in wartime.”
— Time
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“Hails the camaraderie and deep bonds formed between people thrown together in dire circumstances."
— Christian Science Monitor
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“A sweeping novel loosely based on his mother’s experiences…of WWII, and the love stories—both romantic and platonic—that followed her home.”
— Entertainment Weekly
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“Urrea re-creates the time and place beautifully but allows room for surprise, building to the novel’s crescendo.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
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“His immersion in the existing documentation is clear.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“A moving and graceful tribute to friendship and to heroic women who have shouldered the burdens of war.”
— Publishers Weekly
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Every once in a while the universe opens its heart and pulls out a book like this novel, gifting it to the cosmos. In Good Night, Irene, a new element has been created, and the literary world is reborn in the image of Luis Alberto Urrea. His voice comes alive on every page of this magnificent novel.
— Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
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Good Night, Irene isn’t just a marvelous novel, though it is indeed marvelous. It’s a marvelous novel that returns the brave Donut Dollies and the WWII Clubmobile Corps to their rightful place in history. With grace and compassion, Luis Alberto Urrea makes their story soar again.” —Ann Hood, New York Times bestselling author of The Knitting Circle
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Epic . . . Rambunctious . . . Highly entertaining . . . Sorrowful and funny . . . Cheerfully profane . . . The quips and jokes come fast through a poignant novel that is very much about time itself . . . A powerful rendering of a Mexican-American family that is also an American family.
— Viet Thanh Nguyen, New York Times Book Review
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A raucous, moving, and necessary book...Intimate and touching...The stuff of legend...There's deep heart and tenderness in this novel.The House of Broken Angels is, at its most political, a border story...Chillingly accurate, they're heartbreaking, and infuriating.
— Alexis Burling, San Francisco Chronicle
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An immensely charming and moving tale...Urrea deftly inhabits many points of view, dreaming up an internal voice for each...It is a testament to his swift and lucid characterizations that one does not want to leave this party...A novel like The House of Broken Angels is a radical act. It is a big, epic story about how hard it is to love with all of your heart, and all of your family--regardless of which side of the border they live on.
— John Freeman, Boston Globe
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The House of Broken Angels is a big, sprawling, messy, sexy, raucous house party of a book, a pan-generational family saga with an enormous, bounding heart, a poetic delivery, and plenty of swagger...More than once while reading the novel, I thought of James Joyce's 'The Dead,' another kaleidoscopic fable of family life that skillfully mixes perspectives...The House of Broken Angels is a book about celebration that is, itself, a celebration.
— Michael Lindgren, Washington Post
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Urrea's gifts as a storyteller are prodigious...The book's spirit is irrepressibly high. Even in its saddest moments, The House of Broken Angels hums with joy...The noveloverflows with the pleasure of family...And all that vulnerability, combined with humor and celebration and Urrea's vivid prose, will crack you open.
— Lily Meyer, NPR