Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories — Lorraine M. Lopez

Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Finalist for PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Winner, Writers League of Texas Award. ''In a voice that is all at once hilarious and mischievous, searing and seething and sardonic, Lorraine Lopez presents, in her most necessary book to date, a celebration of the liberating power of bad behavior,'' writes Heather Sellers about HOMICIDE SURVIVORS PICNIC AND OTHER STORIES. Most of the stories are set in the South and focus around family relationships, by birth and choice, among characters from Latino and other backgrounds. Lydia, a childless linguist, takes care of her precious four-year-old niece while the mother faces jail. Social worker Rita rents the empty half of her duplex to her loser ex-husband, with disastrous results. And in the title story, teenager Ted winds up attending a homicide survivor's picnic with his sister, who is mourning her recently slain boyfriend whom Ted barely knew. ''We are moved by her characters' difficult dilemmas without being traumatized,'' writes Lynn Pruett. And Manuel Munoz agrees, ''All of the refined and subtle humor we've come to expect from Lopez.... A marvelous collection.''