About this item
What happens when you fall in love with someone everyone seems determined to fear?. Ninety seconds can change a life -- not just daily routine, but who you are as a person. Gretchen Asher knows this, because thats how long a stranger held her body to the ground. When a car sped toward them and Gretchens attacker told her to run, she recognized a surprising terror in his eyes. And now she doesnt even recognize herself. . Ninety seconds can change a life -- not just the place you live, but the person others think you are. Phoenix Flores Flores knows this, because months after setting off toward the U.S. / Mexico border in search of safety for his brother, he finally walked out of detention. But Phoenix didnt just trade a perilous barrio in El Salvador for a leafy suburb in Atlanta. He became that person -- the one his new neighbors crossed the street to avoid. . Ninety seconds can change a life -- so how will the ninety seconds of Gretchen and Phoenixs first encounter change theirs?. Told in alternating first person points of view, The Radius of Us is a story of love, sacrifice, and the journey from victim to survivor. It offers an intimate glimpse into the causes and devastating impact of Latino gang violence, both in the U.S. and in Central America, and explores the risks that victims take when they try to start over. Most importantly, Marie Marquardts The Radius of Us shows how people struggling to overcome trauma can find healing in love.
About the Author
Marie Marquardt is an author of young adult novels, a college professor, and an immigration advocate. Her debut novel, Dream Things True (St. Martin's Press) , was a 2015 YA BEA Buzz Panel choice praised in Kirkus as a "worthy examination of undocumented immigration in the American South through the lens of young love."
Her second novel, THE RADIUS OF US, reflects the experience of Latin American teenagers fleeing gang violence and seeking asylum in the United States. It's an issue that Marie Marquardt cares about profoundly, and she believes that connecting to it emotionally it can be a powerful antidote to the hate, fear, and misunderstanding that plagues our society.
She is a Scholar-in-Residence at Emory University's Candler School of Theology and has been an advocate for social justice for Latin American immigrants in the South for two decades. She has published many articles and co-authored two non-fiction books on the issues involved and has been interviewed on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and BBC America, among many other media outlets. She is also the co-chair of El Refugio, a Georgia non-profit that serves detained immigrants and their families.
Marie Marquardt is a proud member of the We Need Diverse Books team and lives in a busy household in Decatur, Georgia with her spouse, four children, a dog and a bearded dragon.
