Those People Behind Us: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Its the summer of 2017 in Wellington Beach, California, a suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing pricesdivisions that change the lives of five neighbors.

Longtime resident and real estate agent Lisa Kensington juggles her job, her shopaholic husband, a mother-in-law who knows how to push her buttons, and teenage children with ideas of their own, all while trying to hold on to her own dreams. Her neighbor Ray Gorman is a haunted Vietnam vet who is also caring for his aging mother. Keith Nelson, an ex-con, lives in his car, parked around the corner from Ray, near his parents house. Keiths got a job, a grandmother he loves, and a gym routine that almost helps him manage his violent tendencies. Down the street from Ray, sixteen-year-old Josh Kowalski is working through the shock of his fathers abandonment by slamming on a drum set. He loves Led Zeppelin and setting things on fire and is fascinated with his friends sister. New neighbor Jeannette Larsen, an aerobics teacher numbed by horrific tragedy, turns away from her husbandand toward sex with strangers. In the end, these characters discover that despite their differences, they are more connected than any of them could have imagined.

Reviews

Fans of Liane Moriarty will savor the raw suspense and mystery Camarillo has skillfully woven. Juxtaposed against the bright and sunny Southern California sky, this multigenerational tale takes a deep dive into the minds and motivations of a seemingly harmless neighborhood as it strips back each dark and complicated layer, piece by piece.
Suzanne Simonetti, USA Today best-selling author of The Sound of Wings

Thoughtful and riveting. In Those People Behind Us, Mary Camarillo trains an astute yet empathetic eye on the residents of one Southern California planned community in the year 2017, dissecting the mental and emotional cracks in our foundation at the brink of the Trump era.
Shelley Blanton-Stroud, author of Copy Boy and Tom Boy

Peyton Place with a twist of Trump.
Eduardo Santiago, author of Tomorrow They Will Kiss and Midnight Rhumba

A fascinating and perceptive read about growth, acceptance, and understanding people different than yourself.
Diana Wagman, author of Spontaneous and Extraordinary October

As skillfully as Elizabeth Strout and Susan Straight, Mary Camarillo captures her diverse beach town community with such precision you feel you are eavesdropping on real peoples lives, with all their dreams and disappointments, faults, and frailties. Though Camarillo touches on hot topics such as homelessness, low-income housing, racism, and political differences, she lets her characters express their differing views and leaves it to her readers to draw their own conclusions. What I liked most about this beautifully crafted novel was the ultimate truth woven throughoutthat despite our differences, most of us are more alike than we are different.
Debra Thomas, author of Luz: A Novel

With vivid and colorful descriptions, Ann Marie Jackson renders a vibrant literary canvas that transports the reader to the enchanting land of Mexicos treasuredSan Miguel de Allende.While there, we witness the transformation of a woman who, surrounded by the strength of her close friends and communityas well as through her own focused determinationis able to rise above the pain of a broken marriage and restore her spirit to what it once was.
Jessica Winters Mireles, author of Lost in Oaxaca

A town that could be anywhere in America.
Leslie A. Rasmussen, author of After Happily Ever After and The Stories We Cannot Tell

Author Bio

Mary Camarillos award-winning debut novel, The Lockhart Women, was published in June 2021 by She Writes Press. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in publications such as TAB Journal, 166 Palms, Sonora Review, and The Ear. Mary writes about living in Southern California, a place shes called home for more than fifty-five years and is still trying to understand. She had a long career with the postal service, which might be geneticboth her grandfathers were railway mail clerks. She sorted mail, sold stamps, worked in the accounting office, and went to night school, eventually earning a degree in business administration, a CPA license, and a Certificate in Internal Auditing. She currently serves on the advisory boards of Citric Acid, An Orange County Online Literary Arts Quarterly, and LibroMobile, An Arts Cooperative and Bookstore. Mary lives with her husband who plays ukulele, and their terrorist cat Riley, who makes frequent appearances on Instagram in Huntington Beach, California.