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Joy Castro

Flight Risk: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Joy Castro (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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A woman is forced to face her past in a heartbreaking and triumphant novel of old wounds and family secrets by award-winning author Joy Castro.

Isabel Morales is a successful Chicago sculptor hiding a brutal family history—one not even her husband knows. After decades of turning her back on her past, she’s forced to return to Appalachia when she receives news of her estranged mother’s death.

But going back means revisiting the traumatic childhood she escaped—and the family that cast her out when she needed them most. Back on the land she has inherited, she’s flooded with memories of the forest where she once roamed free, of her beloved lost brother, and of the old house in the West Virginia hills where she grew up. Her mother has left her another legacy, too, which reveals secrets that Isabel is only beginning to understand.

As forces bear down and threaten to take what she has left, it’s time for Isabel to step into her power, reclaim her roots, and finally confront the painful memories that have kept her from the life she truly wants.

Print length

330 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Lake Union Publishing
Publication date

1 November 2021
File size

3458 KB
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Product description

From the Publisher

I love fiction about outsiders, and this gripping novel features the ultimate outsider character—Isabel Morales. Growing up as the only Latina in a poverty-stricken small town in Appalachia, Isabel faced prejudice, violence, and brutal loss. It took all her strength to leave her past behind. She never discussed her history, not even with her husband. This is how she survived. And this is how she thrived in the Chicago art world—a world of great wealth and social status.

But when her mother dies, she’s forced to return to the land she grew up in. Once there, she can no longer keep memories of her devastating childhood at bay. Not surprisingly, her arrival stirs up greed and suspicion in both those who abused her and the mining company intent on seizing the forest she loved so much as a child.

But Isabel is a survivor. Living in the margins has taught her well. She won’t run away. It’s time for her to reckon with the cycle of destruction. And does she ever.

—Jodi Warshaw, Editor

Review

“…the characters and emotions portrayed make this well worth reading.” ―Booklist

“In Flight Risk, [Castro] does an excellent job at balancing the ambiguity of her characters’ choices, while challenging readers’ expectations. Raised in West Virginia, she shows her insider knowledge in the concerns and interactions of the characters.” ―Los Angeles Review of Books

“Joy Castro’s writing is like watching an Acapulco cliff diver. It takes my breath away every time.” ―Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

“Funny, sexy, and transfixing, Joy Castro’s Flight Risk is a meditation on love, marriage, art, family, womanhood―and therefore, life itself. Castro skillfully builds tension, and the slow intensity with which the plot’s arc forms gives the novel its exquisite and powerful impact.” ―Chigozie Obioma, author of the Booker-short-listed novel An Orchestra of Minorities

“Completely captivating. Part Patricia Highsmith, part Mexican Gothic, part Daphne du Maurier, Joy Castro’s Flight Risk is my favorite kind of story: one in which an outsider, dodging and weaving among insiders, stirs up tension, intrigue, and suspicion. With raw energy and sharp storytelling, Flight Risk is a novel about light and shadow, and I found myself craving its every twist.” ―Timothy Schaffert, author of The Perfume Thief

“From the stunning opening lines of Joy Castro’s Flight Risk, we know we’re in the hands of a master storyteller, and it held me captive until the final page. With writing so evocative I could taste her words, Castro has wrought a sharply observed love story with a social conscience―an investigation of class, family, and the many ways we get each other wrong.” ―Jennifer Steil, author of Exile Music

“Flight Risk is a compelling, gritty portrait of class in America. Joy Castro traffics the rural-urban divide with complexity and compassion. The protagonist, Isabel Morales, an outsider turned artist, guides the reader through poverty, wealth, and the beating heart of our political divide as she reclaims her roots in coal-country West Virginia while reconciling the privileged life she’s built in Chicago. This is outlaw fiction at its best.” ―Melissa Scholes Young, author of The Hive

“A deftly intelligent literary thriller, Flight Risk is that rarest of beasts―beautifully written yet a real page-turner, too. Wonderful.” ―S. J. Watson, author of the international bestseller Before I Go to Sleep

“Joy Castro writes with a balanced urgency―elegant sentences tempered with grace and intelligence, clear and gripping character arcs and story lines―and with a depth and dimension that leans into the transformative. Another strong book.” ―Chris Abani, author of The Secret History of Las Vegas and Song for Night --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08Y8L33KT
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lake Union Publishing (1 November 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3458 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 330 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1542031923

Best Sellers Rank: 69,764 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 344 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
- 1,494 in Women's Fiction About Domestic Life
- 1,950 in Literary Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
6,034 ratings

About the author

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Joy Castro

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Born in Miami, raised in England and West Virginia, and educated in Texas, Joy Castro is the award-winning author of the memoir 'The Truth Book,' two literary thrillers set in post-Katrina New Orleans: 'Hell or High Water' and 'Nearer Home,' the essay collection 'Island of Bones,' and the short fiction collection 'How Winter Began.' Her work has appeared in venues including Ploughshares, Senses of Cinema, Brevity, Fourth Genre, North American Review, Salon, Afro-Hispanic Review, Gulf Coast, and the New York Times Magazine. Winner of the Nebraska Book Award and an International Latino Book Award, Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award, an alternate for the Berlin Prize, editor of the anthology 'Family Trouble,' and a former Writer in Residence at Vanderbilt University, she’s the Willa Cather Professor of English and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she teaches creative writing, literature, and Latinx studies.

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3 star		15%
2 star		5%
1 star		3%

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Top review from Australia

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Denise

An interesting read.

Reviewed in Australia on 8 January 2022

Verified Purchase

This book got better as I progressed through it. The characters unfolded and you got to understand them better to make this a good read that kept me on edge till the plot unfolded.

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Top reviews from other countries

Book lover

Good until it turned political

Reviewed in the United States on 5 October 2021

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I was enjoying the book a lot, but then she had to bring the 2016 election into it, and that is when I was done. We all have our own beliefs and ideals, but why spoil a good book by letting the President that the American people voted into office—who obviously the author hated, ruin what would otherwise have been a pretty good book.

435 people found this helpful

Angel

Such a disappointment

Reviewed in the United States on 5 October 2021

Verified Purchase

Enjoying the story until the story veered into the authors political bias. I wouldn’t mind if it was germane to the plot..it wasn’t. It seemed like she had the book 3/4 written and was forced to meet a deadline. Triggered by the election, she inserted every social ill topic she can think of into the last quarter of the book. Totally ruined the book for me. Her heavy reliance on a thesaurus was also distracting.

352 people found this helpful

Joann t

Leave politics to the politicians

Reviewed in the United States on 7 October 2021

Verified Purchase

Enjoyed reading, but deleted entire book when author voiced opinion on 2016 presidential election. Should not have gone there. A clown (?) I hardly think so, look at what we've got in the white house now!

329 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Didn’t finish it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 November 2021

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I found it heavy going. Not my style of the written word. Others may enjoy it though.

DisneyDenizen

WELL WRITTEN

Reviewed in the United States on 1 October 2021

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Established author alert! It's always a treat when First Reads includes a book by an established author. Joy Castro is memoirist, essayist, novelist, and short story author. She is also a professor of literature and creative writing.

While Flight Risk is a work of fiction, it is written in the first person and reads like a memoir. It's an enjoyable deceptively easy read, yet quite an intelligent book. It will draw you in.

You should be aware that the book does contain swear words, including the so-called f-bomb. I find that sometimes a choice swear word is the only one that will do, but I know not everyone agrees with that assertion.

With nothing new under the sun, the impact of a book often comes down to the quality of the writing. And this one is good.

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Flight Risk: A Novel Kindle Edition

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Joy Castro

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