Bang

After the crash, Cuauhtemoc wakes up bound and gagged, wondering where he is. Uli comes to in a hospital, praying that it's on the American side of the border. And their mother finds herself waiting for her sons as well as her missing husband. Araceli knows that she has to go back to the country she left behind in order to find her family.

In Mexico, each is forced to navigate the complexities of their past and an unknown world of deprivation and violence. Ruthless drug cartels force Cuauhtmoc to fly drugs. "If a brick goes missing, Cuauhtmoc dies. If a plane goes missing, Cuauhtmoc dies. If Cuauhtmoc goes missing, they find Cuauhtmoc (wherever he's at) and Cuauhtmoc dies." If they can't find him, they will kill his mother. They have photos of her in Matamoros to prove they can enforce the threat. Meanwhile, Uli returns to his family's home in San Miguel and finds a city virtually abandoned, devastated by battles between soldiers, cartels and militias that vie for control.

Vividly portraying the impact of international drug smuggling, Pena's debut novel also probes the loss of talented individuals and the black market machines fed with the people removed and shut out of America. Ultimately, Bang is a riveting tale about ordinary people forced to do dangerous, unimaginable things.