Twitching Heart. By Matt Méndez.

Twitching Heart. By Matt Méndez. Edited by Yasmeen Namazie and Genevieve Miller. ISBN 978-1480257023.

This is exactly how a winning debut should read—fluid and raw, redemptive and inevitable. Underneath the humor runs a gifted storyteller’s nuanced take on the paradox of the outsider. A triumphant first swing from one of the new stars in the next generation of Chicano literature. --Manuel Muñoz, author of What You See in the Dark

Méndez’s stories emerge out of the gritty and working-class barrios of El Paso. At times gesturing towards the magical realism south of the border, his characters struggle to carve out a piece of the “American Dream,” but the difficulties they endure often leave them speechless. This is where Méndez’s strength as a writer is most visible. While his characters struggle to find the right words, he does not. His prose is restrained, his metaphors apt, and his details are damn near perfect.