Matt Baca's stark, lyrical debut novel, All These Deep Arroyos, explores race, justice, and the complicated bonds of family through the lives of twin brothers Robin and Cruz, who grow up in the high desert of rural New Mexico. Baca's narrative traces the brothers' parallel but different upbringings and the choices they make as young men, as well as a disastrous incident that leads to Robin's imprisonment for one of Cruz's schemes. Seven years later, an insider in the judge's chambers is trying to free Robin from prison, but Robin has no idea who it is or if their efforts will be successful.
Baca draws sharp contrasts between the boys' childhoods: Robin's peaceful life with his steady, loving abuelos in their tiny casita on the edge of the desert, feeding cows and tending corn with his grandfather, and Cruz's far less stable existence with their alcoholic parents in southern Colorado, filled with drinking and drama. Both boys occasionally travel between the two places; Cruz learns early on to live by his wits, while Robin prefers open spaces and hard work. Baca's story also shifts back and forth in time, from the boys' early years to their high school days to their drastically diverging paths as young adults. Baca sensitively portrays the effects of nature and nurture on two young men who love each other deeply but vary radically in temperament and ambition. The novel's unnamed narrator--the person who fights for Robin to be released--describes their lives with the precision of an eyewitness, chronicling their teenage mischief, their deviating plans for their futures, and their grief, especially Robin's, at the loss of their grandparents.
When Robin falls in love with Cristina, a brilliant Laguna Pueblo girl determined to build a scientific career, he starts to dream of a life for himself to match hers. Cruz, meanwhile, is more interested in schemes with an edge of danger and the promise of quick returns. Robin resists his brother's lifestyle for a time, but eventually he agrees to help Cruz move some boxes of (ostensibly) insulin across the country. When the trip goes badly and Cruz disappears, it is Robin who takes the fall and Robin who must cling to the dream of another life outside of prison--and the even fainter chance of release.
All These Deep Arroyos charts the quiet desperation and fierce hope of people shaped by the harsh, beautiful landscape they call home. It considers the ways a person's past actions--even those they may not remember--can have powerful effects on the present and future. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Matt Baca's stark, lyrical debut novel chronicles the intertwined but radically different lives of twin brothers from rural New Mexico and the choices that affect both their fates.