In Mario Alberto Zambrano's acclaimed literary debut a Mexican-American girl uses the game of
Lotería to reveal her memories which add up to a heart-wrenching tale of violence love and a
broken family (Los Angeles Times)-now available as a limited Olive Edition from Harper
Perennial. With her older sister Estrella in the ICU and her father in jail eleven-year-old
Luz Castillo has been taken into the custody of the state. Alone in her room the young girl
retreats behind a wall of silence writing in her journal and shuffling through a deck of
lotería cards-a Mexican version of bingo featuring bright colorful images. Neither the social
worker assigned to her case nor her Aunt Tencha who desperately pleads for her niece's release
can cajole Luz to speak. The young girl's only confidant is her journal. Within its pages Luz
addresses an invisible higher power sharing her secrets and the story of her family's tragic
demise-and the terrifying night that ripped them apart forever. Using the lotería cards as her
muse Luz picks one card from the deck with each shuffle. Each of the cards' colorful images-
mermaids bottles spiders death and stars-sparks a random memory. Pieced together these
snapshots bring into focus the joy and pain of the young girl's life including the violence
inflicted against her sister the disappearance of her mother her father's arrest. But just as
the story becomes clear a breathtaking twist changes everything. A surprising spellbinding
tale richly imaginative and atmospheric Loteria is an exquisite debut novel from an
outstanding new voice in fiction.
