The Buddha Book — Abraham Rodriguez

Dinky, Jose, and Barbara are teens living in the Bronx. Dinky wants to put his father's drug dealing reputation behind him; Jose has just been dumped by his girlfriend who's moved on to the neighborhood's new drug dealer, Angel; Barbara's the smart girl who desperately wants to be noticed. Secretly, Dinky and Jose draw, write, and distribute "Buddha Book," a comic of outrageous tales based on their life in the Bronx. Things change suddenly when, in a fit of rage, Jose murders his ex. Jose wants to turn himself in. But Dinky convinces him that he's committed the perfect crime and would be in great danger if Angel were to discover the real story. The Buddha Book follows Jose as he moves toward acknowledgement of what he has done and finds a way to confess it; details Dinky's escape from the clutches of his father to begin a new life; and traces Barbara's first steps toward becoming a woman. Lyric, inspired, and darkly funny, The Buddha Book is a powerful novel that brilliantly evokes teenagers at war with themselves and with the place in which they live.