The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez
“Rudy Ruiz perfectly captures the thunderclap of true love and the magical, terrible, and beautiful ways its storm plays out through the lives of his characters. Like his beloved Carolina, you will be drawn to Fulgencio, you will flourish in his presence, you will be frustrated and angry with him, and ultimately you will love him and rejoice in his resurrection. A novel of redemption that will leave you in joyful tears.”
Charlie Lovett, New York Times bestselling author
A San Antonio Express News Editor's Pick of the Month
A Parade Magazine Pick from Latinx Writers for Hispanic Heritage Month
A Chicago Tribune Pick of Books of Latinx Authors
A Booklist Top 10 Pick of 2020's Best Debut Novels
A 2020 Reading the West Book Award nominee for Debut Fiction
Finalist for the Spur Award for Best Contemporary Novel
Winner of the Rudolfo Anaya Award for Best Latino Focused Fiction Book in English
Winner of the International Latino Book Award Gold Medal for Best Audiobook
A BuzzFeed Books Pick of Books to Draw You into Historical Fiction
In the 1950s, tensions remain high in the border town of La Frontera. Penny loafers and sneakers clash with boots and huaraches. Bowling shirts and leather jackets compete with guayaberas. Convertibles fend with motorcycles. Yet amidst the discord, young love blooms at first sight between Fulgencio Ramirez, the son of impoverished immigrants, and Carolina Mendelssohn, the local pharmacist’s daughter. But as they’ll soon find out, their bonds will be undone by a force more powerful than they could have known.
Thirty years after their first fateful encounter, Fulgencio Ramirez, RPh, is conducting his daily ritual of reading the local obituaries in his cramped pharmacy office. After nearly a quarter of a century of waiting, Fulgencio sees the news he’s been hoping for: his nemesis, the husband of Carolina Mendelssohn, has died.
A work of magical realism, The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez weaves together the past and present as Fulgencio strives to succeed in America, break a mystical family curse, and win back Carolina’s love after their doomed youthful romance. Through enchanting language and meditations about the porous nature of borders—cultural, geographic, and otherworldly—The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez offers a vision of how the past has divided us, and how the future could unite us.
“Rudy Ruiz perfectly captures the thunderclap of true love and the magical, terrible, and beautiful ways its storm plays out through the lives of his characters. Like his beloved Carolina, you will be drawn to Fulgencio, you will flourish in his presence, you will be frustrated and angry with him, and ultimately you will love him and rejoice in his resurrection. A novel of redemption that will leave you in joyful tears.”
Charlie Lovett, New York Times bestselling author
“Rudy Ruiz’s first novel is told with wit and verve. Entertaining and dramatic, this novel will delight readers and leave you wanting more.”
Nora Comstock de Hoyos, PhD, founder, Las Comadres Para Las Américas
“A romantic and sentimental tale, The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez explores what bad choices and the ravages of time do to a border couple’s love. The many plot twists keep the reader guessing about that age-old question: Can you ever return to what you have lost in the past?”
Sergio Troncoso, author of A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son
“With an atmospheric setting and beguiling prose, lavish details, fascinating, well-developed characters, and charming elements of magic realism, Ruiz conjures a magnetic story about the kindness of strangers, solid familial bonds, bold perseverance, and steadfast love.”
Booklist (starred review)
"The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez is a beautiful novel about love, family curses, class differences, and the difficulties of Latinos to progress in America, as well as a reflection on all borders, not just geographical ones.”
Al Dia
“A quirky, colorful story…full of rich detail…Ruiz creates a surreal world with death and not-death that allows all the friends Fulgencio meets in his adventures to live beyond their demise—and cross back over the line just to hold court with him. The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez is ultimately a party of all these characters, endlessly recounting the unbelievable adventures of their hero.”
New York Journal of Books
“Ruiz’s first novel is full of life, a brew of contemporary and historical fiction, a coming-of-age tale, adventurous, mysterious, and romantic, laced with social commentary, both spiced and sweetened by the grand Latinx tradition of magical realism…Ruiz’s voice is distinctive, though the cadence is familiar, recognizable to readers of Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Laura Esquivel, to name a very few. Ruiz’s style is also somehow comforting, recalling literature past. Fulgencio has the medicine we need right now.”
Lone Star Literary Life
“A magical realist tale of star-crossed lovers in the border town of La Frontera…There’s a family curse, immigration politics, and love. What more could you ask for?
Book Riot
“Ruiz’s prose is buoyant and immersive.”
Southern Review of Books
