Why read Mecca?

Book cover of Mecca

Book description

One of The Washington Post's Ten Best Books of 2022. Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize and the 2023 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. One of the New York Times' 10 Best California Books of 2022 and one of NPR's Best Books of 2022. A New York Times Book Review Editors'…

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Literary fiction

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Mecca as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Lawrence Coates

Author

I am in awe of Susan Straight’s Mecca.

Set in the inland regions of Southern California, far from glamor, this novel contains a cross section of characters from California’s past, present, and future, all connected by blood, by place, by history. It begins with an act of violence committed to disrupt a sexual assault, and that act has consequences that echo through decades. The landscape, beautiful and treacherous and fire-prone, acts like one more character.

The novel ends with a standoff between the characters we’ve grown to know and love and ICE agents—a haunting and newly relevant image. A…

From Lawrence's list on books on California as fiction, myth, reality.

Robert Tucker

Author

Among my favorite authors, Susan Straight portrays a contemporary multiethnic Southern California through fully realized characters in a unique, dynamic, often shattering story of their lives.

The cinematic movement throughout the novel begins with an amazing journey with Johnny Frias, an Hispanic motorcycle cop, and swells with epic fury in the depiction of indigenous race, cultural history, and family.

From Robert's 3 favorite reads in 2023.