Mario Alberto Zambrano, author of Loteria, on tour July 2013

About Loteria

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper (July 2, 2013)

Prepare to be enthralled by this lyrical, achingly human debut novel about a young girl’s remarkable resilience in the face of loss. Struggling to cope as her family falls apart, eleven-year-old Luz María Castillo retreats into her beloved set of Lotería cards—a Mexican game featuring riddles and vibrant images. Each card represents a different memory, and as Luz shuffles through the deck, she weaves her recollections into a compelling story of love, loyalty, tragedy, and hope.

By turns affecting and inspiring, Lotería is a powerful novel that heralds the arrival of an outstanding new writer, one who reminds us of the importance of remembering, even when we are trying to forget.

Early Praise for Loteria:

“Lotería is the card-based Mexican variant of bingo and, in the hands of Zambrano, it’s a deck stacked with narrative possibilities.… From it, Zambrano coaxes a language that straddles pictures and words, Spanish and English. An intriguing debut.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Zambrano’s stellar debut is proof positive that good things come in small packages.” — Booklist (starred review)

About Mario Alberto Zambrano

Mario Alberto Zambrano was a Riggio Honors Fellow at the New School and recently completed his MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as an Iowa Arts Fellow. He is a recipient of the John C. Schupes Fellowship for Excellence in Fiction. Lotería is his first novel.

Find out more about Mario at his website and connect with him on Facebook.