In New York City's Spanish Harlem, Julio and Maritza are each searching for a path that will give their lives meaning, even if it's shadowed by controversy. Julio is an arsonist for hire, pocketing thousands of dollars from investors eager to capitalize on more expensive real estate. But when he has reason to stop setting his neighborhood ablaze and vows to change his ways, Julio's employers threaten his life -- and the lives of those close to him. Maritza, meanwhile, has become the pastor of a progressive Pentecostal church -- the perfect cover for the scam she's running. For the right price, she'll make anyone an American citizen.

With a cast of characters as colorful as the city itself, Ernesto Quinonez brings to life a landscape we can all recognize.

"A new and authentic voice of the urban Latino experience." --Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican

In a stunning narrative combining the gritty rhythms of Junot Diaz with the noir  genius of Walter Mosley, Bodega Dreams announces the arrival of a writer who The Village Voice has already hailed as "a Writer on the Verge."

The word is out in Spanish Harlem: Willy Bodega is king.  Need college tuition for your daughter?  Start-up funds for your fruit stand?  Bodega can help.  He gives everyone a leg up, in exchange only for loyalty--and a steady income from the drugs he pushes.

Lyric, inspired, and darkly funny, this powerful debut novel brilliantly evokes the trial of Chino, a smart, promising young man to whom Bodega turns for a favor.  Chino is drawn to Bodega's street-smart idealism, but soon finds himself over his head, navigating an underworld of switchblade tempers, turncoat morality, and murder.

Julio Santana quema edificios. Por una modesta suma, Julio le prende fuego a los edificios de Harlem que algunos pode-rosos inversionistas quieren hacer desaparecer para cobrar el dinero del seguro, y construir nuevos edificios, mas modernos, mas caros, mas comodos. Julio ha ganado miles de dolares quemando las casas del mismo barrio que lo vio crecer, y con todo el dinero que ha ganado, logro comprar un apartamento en el que vive con sus padres.

Pero cuando se enamora de Helen, una blanquita que acaba de mudarse a su edificio, Julio decide dejar a un lado los incendios, para llevar una vida honesta y sin complicaciones. Lo que no se esperaba, es que su cambio de parecer enfureciera tanto a sus jefes y que pronto, no solo peligraria su propia vida, sino tambien la de sus seres queridos.

A medida que lucha por alejarse de la vida que llevaba, Julio se ve rodeado de diversos personajes que iluminan pero tambien complican su existencia. De la pastora del barrio, que le consigue papeles de ciudadania a los trabajadores indo-cumentados, a Papelito, el sabio y respetado santero, a los encantadores padres de Julio, Quinonez le da vida a una novela cuyos personajes y temas son tan evocadores y universales que permaneceran en la mente del lector para siempre.