A Second Chance on Earth - by Juan Vidal (Paperback)

About the Book

"When sixteen-year-old Marcos travels to Cartagena, Colombia to scatter his late father's ashes, he strikes up a friendship with Camilo, a boy his age who works as a local taxi driver and shares Marcos' love for the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude"--

Book Synopsis

A father, a friend, and a favorite book help a teen boy understand love and loss in this moving and vivid YA novel in verse.

Have you ever encountered a book that KO'd you, Iron Mike Tyson style? One that hit you square in the face and heart like some abracadabra casting a hex from an unknown planet?

For sixteen-year-old poet and b-baller Marcos Cadena, that book is the beat-up copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude he finds among his late father's possessions after Papi is killed in an accident.

Marcos' papi has always loomed large in his eyes. So, when Marcos travels to his parents' childhood home of Cartagena, Colombia to spread Papi's ashes, he brings his father's book with him, convinced that Gabriel García Márquez's masterpiece holds the key to understanding Papi's life and accepting his death.

In Cartagena, Marcos befriends eighteen-year-old Camilo, a taxi driver and fellow García Márquez fan who appoints himself Marcos' unofficial tour guide. Together, the two boys explore the landscape of Cartagena, from the picturesque streets of Old Town to the poor neighborhood where Camilo grew up. But when Camilo reveals a troubling secret from his past, Marcos must ask himself whether everyone deserves a second chance.

Woven through with themes of friendship, family, and forgiveness, this poignant novel in verse is also a love letter to Colombia and to the books of Gabriel García Márquez.

Review Quotes

★ "Heartfelt, moving, and beautifully written."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

★ "Through affecting verse, Vidal (Rap Dad, for adults) deftly examines themes of friendship, masculinity, grief, and redemption. The richly detailed Colombian background of this poignant exploration of the death of a parent is as alive and vibrant as its narrator."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

★ "An ode to literature in Vidal's profound YA debut. An introspective coming-of-age novel in verse that is a must-have for young adult collections."--School Library Journal, Starred Review

"Author Juan Vidal has done the impossible: Crafted a touching exploration of grief with Colombia and the legendary Gabriel Garcia Marquez as his guide. Poetic and raw, readers will fall for the basketball-loving romantic Marcus. A Second Chance on Earth marks Vidal's debut as a defining new literary force to be reckoned with." --Lilliam Rivera, award-winning author of Never Look Back

"A tremendous piece of literature. Marcos is probably one of the most fully-realized kids I've ever come across in YA literature. Juan has captured that teenaged maelstrom of yearning and fronting and wanting to belong and occasional rootlessness and competitiveness and desire to be desired and love of family, all of it like a diamond in this kid I love more than life itself. And the Colombia he enters is freakin' kaleidoscopic. Like a fever dream, but compassionate. Folks are not ready for this book." --Tochi Onyebuchi, award-winning author of Beasts Made of Night

About the Author

Juan Vidal is the author of the memoir Rap Dad, which explores father-son dynamics and Latino masculinity through the lens of hip-hop culture. A Second Chance on Earth is his YA debut.