J. Malcolm Garcia's Books

Out of the Rain

A Novel

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

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A debut novel from the award-winning journalist about the people in a San Francisco homeless shelter, and those who try to help—or prey on them. “Ever since I first read Mr. Garcia's journalism I have admired his bravery and accuracy. This work reminds me of György Konrád‘s great novella The Case Worker.” —William T. Vollmann "[T]here’s a writer named J. Malcolm Garcia who continually astounds me with his energy and empathy. I’ve been following him wherever he goes." —Dave Eggers Out of the Rain takes us into the growing world of the homeless in the United States, particularly in San Francisco. Here we read their powerful stories, which examine not just poverty but bottom-of-the-barrel destitution, and in many cases self-destruction. Tom, who runs a social services agency, doesn’t play by a book of rules as much as try to bring some humanity to his work. Then there is Walter, a homeless man who can’t save himself from booze but is ready to help others. Throughout this novel told from various perspectives, the reader is introduced in intimate detail to the lives of social services workers trying to find open shelter beds and simultaneously navigating federal programs. Homeless men and women are battling sobriety and addiction and simply trying to find sustainable work and decent housing. Based on the author’s experience working with homeless people in San Francisco as a social services worker in the 1980s and 1990s, this novel vividly takes the reader into the heads of combat veterans, junkies, prostitutes and the unemployed. J. Malcolm Garcia left social services to pursue journalism so he could write about the people he worked with and share their stories—and humanity—with the broader public. “There weren’t enough shelter beds, weren’t enough detoxes, weren’t enough jobs, weren’t enough anything for the people I wanted to help.” —Tom, social worker, in Out of the Rain

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Page Count

238

Publisher

Seven Stories Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1644213877

ISBN 13

9781644213872

Riding through Katrina with the Red Baron's Ghost

A Memoir of Friendship, Family, and a Life Writing

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

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Riding through Katrina with the Red Baron's Ghost

A Memoir of Friendship, Family, and a Life Writing

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

The first book that J. Malcolm Garcia ever bought would impact his life in a way that the then twelve-year-old could have never imagined. The Day the Red Baron Died plunged Garcia into the intrigue and excitement of the World War I German flying ace's life and death. Garcia was enraptured and brimming with questions. His mother encouraged the curious boy to write to the book's author, Dale M. Titler. When the author replied, a friendship began that shaped Garcia's life. In Riding through Katrina with the Red Baron's Ghost, Garcia chronicles his relationship with Titler. It was that connection that brought Garcia to New Orleans only two weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and its citizens. Not having heard from his friend in years, Garcia made the split-second decision to go to New Orleans to try to find the man who meant so much to him. A harrowing account of New Orleans directly after Katrina—told in Garcia's award-winning journalistic style—Riding through Katrina with the Red Baron's Ghost tells a personal story of a thirty-year bond that defined a young man, as well as the universal story of the horror and devastation Katrina left in its wake.

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Page Count

229

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1628728701

ISBN 13

9781628728705

The Fruit of All My Grief

Lives in the Shadows of the American Dream

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

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The Fruit of All My Grief

Lives in the Shadows of the American Dream

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

Like the Russian author Svetlana Alexievich, award-winning journalist J. Malcolm Garcia lets the people he writes about speak for themselves. His writing highlights the struggles and the dignity of people quietly fighting for their lives. They include families and small businesses still recovering from the BP oil spill; the man sentenced to life in prison for transporting drugs to pay for the medical care that would save his son’s life; the widows of soldiers who died, not in war, but from toxic fumes they were exposed to at their bases overseas; the Iraqi interpreter who was promised American asylum, only to arrive and be forced to live in poverty. The soaring narratives told in The Fruit of All My Grief let us feel the fears, hopes, and outrage of those living in the shadows of the American Dream.

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Page Count

217

Publisher

Seven Stories Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1609809548

ISBN 13

9781609809546

Without a Country

The Untold Story of America's Deported Veterans

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

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Without a Country

The Untold Story of America's Deported Veterans

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

Many Americans believe service in the military to be a quintessential way to demonstrate patriotism. We expect those who serve to be treated with respect and dignity. However, as in so many aspects of our politics, the reality and our ideals diverge widely in our treatment of veterans. There is perhaps no starker example of this than the continued practice of deporting men and women who have served. J. Malcolm Garcia has travelled across the country and abroad to interview veterans who have been deported, as well as the families and friends they have left behind, giving the full scope of the tragedy to be found in this all too common practice. Without a Country analyzes the political climate that has led us here and takes a hard look at the toll deportation has taken on American vets and their communities. Deported veterans share in and reflect the diversity of America itself. The numerous compounding injustices meted out to them reflect many of the still unresolved contradictions of our nation and its ideals. But this story, in all its grit and complexity, really boils down to an old, simple question: Who is a real American?

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Page Count

248

Publisher

Hot Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1510722432

ISBN 13

9781510722439

What Wars Leave Behind

The Faceless and the Forgotten

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

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What Wars Leave Behind

The Faceless and the Forgotten

By: J. Malcolm Garcia

They bear labels instead of names—noncombatant, unintended victim, collateral damage. Theirs are the blurred faces and forms seen in news footage shot from a moving vehicle. And when soldiers, media, and profiteers move on to the next conflict, they stay behind to cope amid the wreckage. They have stories to tell to anyone who will pause long enough to hear them. In What Wars Leave Behind, J. Malcolm Garcia reveals the people and pain behind the statistics. He writes about impoverished families scraping by in Cairo’s city of the dead, ordinary Syrians pretending all is well as shells explode around them, and others caught in conflicts that rage long after the cameramen have packed up and gone away. Garcia describes his travels in some of the world’s hotspots in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. In a series of personal travel essays that read like short stories, he exposes the endless messiness of war and the failings of good intentions, and he traces their impact on the lives of natives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Kosovo, Chad, and Syria. He discovers amazing resilience among people who must struggle just to survive each day. Garcia gives readers the sort of gritty detail learned from immersing himself in other cultures. He eats the food, drinks the tea, and endures the oppressive heat. These are the stories of how a middle-class guy from the Midwest with a social work degree learned to experience and embrace the cultures of Third World countries in conflict—and lived to tell the tale.

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Page Count

310

Publisher

University of Missouri

Published Date

ISBN 10

0826222757

ISBN 13

9780826222756

Book's by J. Malcolm Garcia

Out of the Rain

Out of the Rain

Riding through Katrina with the Red Baron's Ghost

Riding through Katrina with the Red Baron's Ghost

The Fruit of All My Grief

The Fruit of All My Grief

Without a Country

Without a Country

What Wars Leave Behind

What Wars Leave Behind

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