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Named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021 by Oprah Magazine, The Week, The Millions, and Electric Lit.

From an award-winning storyteller comes a stunning debut novel about a New Mexican family’s extraordinary year of love and sacrifice.

It’s Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. With weeks to go until her due date, tough, ebullient Angel has fled her mother’s house, setting her life on a startling new path.

Vivid, tender, funny, and beautifully rendered, The Five Wounds spans the baby’s first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge: Amadeo’s mother, Yolanda, reeling from a recent discovery; Angel’s mother, Marissa, whom Angel isn’t speaking to; and disapproving Tíve, Yolanda’s uncle and keeper of the family’s history. Each brings expectations that Amadeo, who often solves his problems with a beer in his hand, doesn’t think he can live up to.

The Five Wounds is a miraculous debut novel from a writer whose stories have been hailed as “legitimate masterpieces” (New York Times). Kirstin Valdez Quade conjures characters that will linger long after the final page, bringing to life their struggles to parent children they may not be equipped to save.

The Five Wounds: A Novel by Kirstin Valdez Quade is a poignant and evocative story of love, loss, and the power of family. Set against the backdrop of the American Southwest, the novel follows the lives of the Cruz family as they navigate the challenges of life in a small town.

At the heart of the story is Amadeo Cruz, a young man struggling to find his place in the world. Haunted by the death of his mother and the abandonment of his father, Amadeo is drawn to the local church, where he finds solace in the teachings of Father Alacran. But when Father Alacran is accused of a terrible crime, Amadeo's faith is shaken, and he must confront the darkness that has been lurking within him.

As Amadeo's journey unfolds, he encounters a cast of unforgettable characters, each with their own unique struggles and aspirations. There is Yolanda, his sister, a strong-willed and independent young woman who longs for a life beyond the confines of their small town. There is Manuel, his older brother, a talented musician who is torn between his love for his family and his desire to pursue his dreams. And there is Angel, a mysterious and enigmatic figure who seems to hold the key to Amadeo's past.

Through the eyes of these characters, Kirstin Valdez Quade paints a vivid portrait of a community grappling with the wounds of the past and the challenges of the present. With lyrical prose and a profound understanding of the human condition, The Five Wounds is a novel that will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.