Arts & Culture

“George died when he was forty. It seemed like the end of my life. Except, I had seven children and I had show them how you accept things like that.”

I am a survivor. My two kids have been out of school for snow days almost as much as they've been in school this winter. One stretch was a week and a half, tacked onto a two week winter break. Twenty days of education-free togetherness. "What do you DO with them??" my friend Mary asked. I thought for a minute. "Well, they're building two snow forts. And they've figured out how to ride a small sled like a snowboard, and they go wobbling down the hill standing up and pitch forward on their faces. They call it snurfing. Then, they come inside and play with the Wii.

This second novel in a futuristic trilogy imagines an America where immigration reform has taken a dangerous turn. In "House Divided" the Latino residents of America have been confined to quarantine zones and a civil war is being waged between the US military and some underground guerilla groups who are fighting on behalf of various constituencies within the Latino community.

In this interview the author discussed how he imagined this disturbing scenario and how he has made the transition from advertising executive to novelist.