Those People Behind Us
My second novel, THOSE PEOPLE BEHIND US, releases on October 10, 2023, from She Writes Press. It’s set in the summer of 2017, post Trump’s election and pre-pandemic, which feels like historical fiction to me.
The story takes place in Wellington Beach, California, a fictional suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices—divisions that change the lives of five neighbors as they search for home and community in a neighborhood where no one can agree who belongs.
There are five main characters in the novel: a young ex-con living in his car near his parent’s house, an aerobics teacher numbed by horrific tragedy, a haunted Vietnam vet caring for his aging mother, a teenage boy who’s working through the shock of his father’s abandonment by slamming on a drum set and a realtor, Lisa Kensington. Lisa is juggling her job, her shopaholic husband, a mother-in-law who knows how to push all of her buttons and two teenagers with ideas of their own. She acts a kind of through line for the story.
During the pandemic, my husband and I spent a lot of time walking the streets of our neighborhood. We heard someone pounding on a drum set and decided it was a kid who dreamed of rock and roll fame. One of our neighbors always left all of their doors wide open, day and night, and we wondered why they were so careless. We were curious about the flags our neighbors flew, what they thought about, and how they spent their days.
We also saw a lot of suburban wildlife on our walks–coyotes, possums, skunks, racoons, herons, hummingbirds–and started paying more attention to the types of trees and plant life. Most of what we observed wondered about ended up in THOSE PEOPLE BEHIND US.
Kirkus Reviews called the novel “ mesmerizing. . . . A worthwhile read with characters who grapple with timely political conundrums.”
Women Writing the West member author Kate Anger who wrote “The Shinnery” called THOSE PEOPLE BEHIND US a “layered, moving, thought-provoking, interwoven, three-degrees of separation story. “
J. Ryan Stradal, author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest and 2020 Willa award winner for Contemporary Fiction described the book as “…a beautiful, propulsive masterwork of empathy.”
More and more these days in these increasingly divided united states, people seem to be lining up on different sides of the fence, especially in my neighborhood. I don’t think we all need to agree with each other but I wish we could all learn to listen and empathize a little more. I’m hoping that’s what people might take away from this novel—empathy for people who aren’t like them.
Mary Camarillo’s debut novel “The Lockhart Women” was a finalist in the 2022 Willa Award for Multi-Form Fiction. She lives in Huntington Beach, California with her husband who plays ukulele and their terrorist cat Riley who makes frequent social media appearances. You can follow their adventures on her website, Facebook page and Instagram.
Mary Camarillo’s debut novel “The Lockhart Women” was a finalist in the 2022 Willa Award for Multi-Form Fiction. She lives in Huntington Beach, California with her husband who plays ukulele and their terrorist cat Riley who makes frequent social media appearances. You can follow their adventures on her website, Facebook page and Instagram.
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