About the Book

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos brings to life a haunting choice and an unforgettable journey about identity, misidentity, and all that we take with us when we run away.

Dark Dude is about a Cuban teen living in New York City. He is uncharacteristically fair-skinned, and his light hair and lighter skin make him the punching bag for the whole neighborhood. Sparked by this and the violence and drug abuse that plague his school, Rico decides his best option for realizing his dreams of writing comic books is to run away.

The Midwest is the land of milk and honey, but for Rico Fuentes, it's really a last resort. In Wisconsin, Rico could blend in. Trading Harlem for Wisconsin, though, means giving up on a big part of his identity. And when Rico no longer has to prove that he's Latino, he almost stops being one. Except he can never have an ordinary white kid's life, because there are some things that can't be left behind, that can't be cut loose or forgotten. These are the things that will be with you forever. These are the things that will follow you a thousand miles away.

About the Author

Oscar Hijuelos is a first-generation Cuban-American and the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. His first novel, Our House in the Last World, was published in 1983 and received the 1985 Rome Prize, awarded by the American Academy in Rome. His second novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It was adapted for the film "The Mambo Kings" in 1992 and as a Broadway musical in 2005. His most recent is A Simple Habana Melody. He lives in, and is a native of, New York City.