The Savior of 6th Street - by Orlando Ortega-Medina (Paperback)

About the Book

A Los Angeles street artist's life collides with that of the daughter of a local drug lord in this magical realism story set in the mid-1980s.

Book Synopsis

Urban Magical realism novel for fans of Haruki Murakami, Toni Morrison, and Junot Diaz

Deserted by his father at the age of four and raised by his voodoo queen mother on the fringes of Skid Row, Los Angeles street artist Virgilio Santos believes it his mission to save the down-and-outers in his neighborhood. But when he crosses paths with Beatrice Schein, an alluring Westside art collector with an aim to promote him to the international art world, Virgilio is tempted to turn his back on his friends. That is, until he discovers that Beatrice's father is a principal financier of organized crime in his neighborhood with plans to tear it all down for redevelopment.

'Rendered with urgent intensity, The Savior of 6th Street is a literary tour de force that confirms Orlando Ortega-Medina as one of the most original storytellers of our time.'

Review Quotes

'Gritty and unexpected...The Savior of 6th Street is Orlando Ortega-Medina's lucid and engrossing new novel about a sinewy young man growing up in Los Angeles's dark, 1980s underworld" -Foreword Reviews

'A philosophical whodunit of the new millennium that is both elegy and prayer, The Savior of 6th Street proves that Ortega-Media is as much an artist as his young protagonist. Read this book!' -Lisa See, author of The Island of Sea Women & Shanghai Girls

'Vibrant, poignant' -Bookmunch