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In the novel  by Deborah Chadwick Clearman ’72, Fernando Granados is a university professor in financial trouble when a boyhood friend reenters his life. Memo Galindo, now part of a notorious Mexican cartel, persuades Fernando to build a meth lab on his country property, near the ancient town of Remedios. Fernando’s strong-willed wife Sandra and their 18-year-old son Félix each fall under Memo’s spell. The family crisis plays out on a larger stage, from its roots in the Guatemalan civil war of the ’80s to corruption in the Guatemalan army and American Drug Enforcement Administration. (New Meridian Arts Literary Press, 2020)

“Deborah Clearman has written a tense, tragic, deeply authentic book that shares DNA with such cartel-tinged masterpieces as The Power of the Dog and Breaking Bad.” —Ben Dolnick, author of The Ghost Notebooks

Clearman is the author of Concepción and the Baby Brokers and Other Stories Out of Guatemala (Rain Mountain Press, 2017), and Todos Santos (Black Lawrence Press, 2010). Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals. She wrote and illustrated The Goose’s Tale for children.