A Ballad of Love and Glory: A Novel

"I love that Grande brought to light two historical events which are largely ignored or unknown by today’s readers. First, the book is set against the backdrop of the Mexican-American war, which was manufactured by the United States to uphold colonialist beliefs in their ‘ Manifest Destiny ’, and which ended in the catastrophic loss of nearly half of our Mexican territory. California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas were all part of Mexico, and the United States annexed them alongside the Mexican and Indigenous people that had lived there for centuries, if not millennia. “When you write a story which resonates with another human being, it uncovers our shared humanity” Reyna explores this tragedy through two protagonists, Ximena, a fictional Mexican army nurse who falls in love with John Riley, who was a real-life Irish immigrant soldier who defected the US Army and formed the St Patrick’s Battalion under the Mexican flag. Here is another fascinating history that is not spoken about often enough: the hundreds of immigrants and enslaved Indigenous and African men who switched sides to fight for Mexico, which had abolished slavery two decades prior. Unfortunately, slavery was reinstated in the territory that was lost to the United States. Overall, it’s a hugely relevant novel in light of the political climate in the United States today – and the way immigrants are being mistreated, scapegoated and dehumanised, when in fact we have always been there."