<p>The Espejo family of El Paso, Texas, is like so many others in America in 1967, trying to make sense of a rapidly escalating war they feel does not concern them. But when the eldest son, Gustavo, a complex and errant rebel, receives a certified letter ordering him to report to basic training, he chooses to flee instead to Mexico. Retreating back to the land of his grandfather--a foreign country to which he is no longer culturally connected--Gustavo sets into motion a series of events that will have catastrophic consequences on the fragile bonds holding the family together. </p><p>Told with raw power and searing bluntness, and filled with important themes as immediate as today's headlines, <em>Names on a Map</em> is arguably the most important work to date of a major American literary artist.</p>
