The House Of Broken Angels

"The House of Broken Angels is a party in book form. The novel opens with Big Angel de la Cruz, the patriarch of a sprawling Mexican-American family, preparing to bury his mother. But Big Angel is dying, too. He has late-stage cancer, and so he gathers his relatives for one last birthday party, which turns into a raucous, joyful, irrepressibly high-spirited celebration of a novel. Even when it breaks your heart, reading about Big Angel and his family is a delight."