The Barbarian Nurseries

Winner of the California Book Award for Fiction
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller

Best Book of the Year Lists
The New York Times Book Review – Los Angeles Times
San Francisco Chronicle – The Boston Globe

Scott and Maureen Torres-Thompson have always relied on others to run their Orange County home. But when bad investments crater their bank account, it all comes down to Araceli: their somewhat prickly Mexican maid. One night, an argument between the couple turns physical, and a misunderstanding leaves the children in Araceli’s care. Their parents unreachable, she takes them to central Los Angeles in the hopes of finding Scott’s estranged Mexican father—an earnest quest that soon becomes a colossal misadventure, with consequences that ripple through every strata of the sprawling city. Héctor Tobar’s The Barbarian Nurseries is a masterful tale of contemporary Los Angeles, a novel as alive as the city itself.