"In this powerful, evocative, character-driven novel, Corbett has written what should be a breakout success."
— Booklist
"Corbett's finest book to date and that's saying a lot."
—Biblio Bloggins
oque Montalvo is wise beyond his eighteen years. Orphaned at birth, a gifted musician, he's stuck in a California backwater, helping his Salvadoran aunt care for his damaged brother, an ex-marine badly wounded in Iraq.
When immigration agents arrest Roque's uncle, the family has nowhere else to turn. Badgered by his street-hardened cousin, Roque agrees to bring the old man back, relying on the criminal gangs that control the dangerous smuggling routes from El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, to the U.S. border.
But his cousin has told Roque only so much. In reality, he will have to transport not just his uncle but two others: an Arab whose intentions are disturbingly vague and a young beauty promised to a Mexican crime lord.
Roque discovers that his journey involves crossing more than one kind of border, and he will be asked time and again to choose between survival and betrayal—of his country, his family, his heart.
Ballantine Books; Original edition (March 2010), ISBN-10: 0812977556, ISBN-13: 978-0812977554
PRAISE FOR DO THEY KNOW I'M RUNNING?
"Corbett is superb. And, if it's possible, he raises his game in Do They Know I'm Running?
Corbett succeeds at exactly what he sets out to do. He has given us a thoroughly entertaining work that lingers long after the final page has been read. Do They Know I'm Running? is a powerful and sobering work. It is Corbett's finest book to date and that's saying a lot."
"Corbett delivers a rich, hard-hitting epic that illuminates the violent and surreal landscapes of Central America and Mexico. . . .an unforgettable journey . . . Fans of Luis Alberto Urrea and Don Winslow alike will be richly rewarded." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"In this powerful, evocative, character-driven novel, Corbett has written what should be a breakout success. . . Readers who devour and then forget formulaic crime novels won't soon forget this one." —Booklist (starred review)
Elaine Petrocelli, owner, BOOK PASSAGE in Publishers Weekly
"Both gritty and sensitive, this amazing novel is a page turner and a literate gem. All David Corbett's hard hitting, yet sensitive thrillers deal with important issues. Yet, he never preaches. No wonder, other authors love to read David Corbett's work. Do They Know I'm Running?, is his best yet!"
"Simplistically, Do They Know I'm Running? is a modern take on "The Odyssey," a displaced character's long journey home from a foreign land. But author David Corbett layers this harrowing trek from El Salvador to the U.S. border with so many breathtaking details that the story takes on profound, heart-wrenching dimensions with every page turned. Do They Know I'm Running? ranks with Don Winslow's "The Power of the Dog" as an essential novel about U.S. relations with our neighbors in Central America." —Rege Behe, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (read the full review)
"My father-in-law was finishing your book when I got home tonight. When I mentioned I met you, he right away asked, "Is he a cholo with a white boy's name?"
I said nope, a white boy.
He said, "He is a poet of my people."
—Kirsten T. Saxton, Associate Professor, Department of English, Mills College
"Do They Know I'm Running? is written with a reporter's eye and a poet's heart. It's wildly ambitious, packed with richly detailed characters, showing how distant spots on the globe from Central America to the Middle East are inextricably connected. Its vast scope occasionally threatens to become sprawl, but David always narrows his focus at exactly the right time to the things that matter: the obligations we all shoulder, the burdens we choose to ignore, the unspoken commitments to our loved ones. That intense interest in the human costs of 21st century life has produced a terrific, heartbreaking book that's one of the year's best." —Vince Keenan, Movies. Crime Fiction. Baseball. Jazz. Cocktails (read the full review)
"I have just finished Do They Know I'm Running? and I'm feeling something like shock. I can't begin to thank you enough for giving a voice to those who don't have one, for telling their story and giving them a face and a heart.
I work with a Latino community and have spent a little time in Nicaragua, a little more in Guatemala. I have seen enormous courage and strength in the face of abject poverty and abuse. What impressed me most on my first trip to Guatemala, and each time I went, was the lack of bitterness in the art and music and smiles, and the welcome they gave those of us from the US, though we all clearly knew the ugly history.
On my first trip, I noticed babies wrapped in replicas of our flag. Turns out this was in honor of 9/11. What does that say about the heart of those people?
When I first heard Mayan women pray, I felt like I was having an "out of body" experience. As the chants and replies increased, the wail started, I had a feeling that the voices were circling ever higher into the atmosphere, taking me with them. The energy was remarkable. I thought it was a "fluke," but no. It happened each time, and I now find myself longing for it."
—Melanie Malovany
"[D]ark and densely layered . . . expertly written . . . Do They Know I'm Running? is a heartbreaking and often shocking look into the kind of stories most of us only glimpse through the news media. And it might be one of the best novels of this still-new year." —Alan Cranis, Bookgasm (read the full review)
"This may seem a strange thing to say about a novel, but I want to thank you for writing an honorable book. You not only make vivid what the sloganeering approach to immigration costs in human lives, your note at the end concerning racism shows an understanding of its cultural mechanism that is, I think, sadly rare. . . If I had to select a contemporary novel that might open minds . . . yours would be right up there. The novel does its imaginative work without being didactic about it. The essay is just a bonus."
With my respect and regard,
—Jeffrey Spear, PhD, Associate Professor of English, NYU
"With lyrical yet muscular prose, an ahead-of-the-headlines plot, and utterly believable characters, David Corbett's Do They Know I'm Running? is nothing short of superb. This is not just a thriller, but an elegant novel, full of heart, soul, music, food, cruelty, betrayal, poverty and love. The line runs through Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene, straight on to David Corbett. I'm not kidding. He's that good." —John Lescroart
"[David Corbett has] presented highbrow thriller fans another literate, emotional, and gritty nail biter entitled Do They Know I'm Running?, a novel that goes behind the demagogue-dominated debate about immigration into a complex, ambiguous, and suspenseful portrait of the treacherous world of human smuggling. It's an exciting story that rings with more truth about this issue than anything coming out of most of today's media.
Do They Know I'm Running? is also a worthy throwback to the novels of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene, where the heroes are not unflappable (and too-often boring) James Bond Übermenschen, but Ordinary Joes, drawn, shoved or tricked into extraordinary situations that awaken them to how things really are and force them to find out the right thing to do or die.
Do they Know I'm Running? is an exciting read that's written with a strong moral and political engagement that doesn't feel overly preachy. It provides a gallery of excellent character portraits of the good and bad alike and shows the interplay between people's angry, often contradictory, minds and the hard world in which they live.
David Corbett also just plain old writes beautifully in long lovely sentences that paint each character in granular detail, from the way they dress, through the weapons they carry and the music they listen to; and finally, to the ways some of them die and some of them live to fight on.
Every now and then I entertain gloomy thoughts that the time of literate, sophisticated genre fiction by literate, engaged writers has passed. It's so nice to be proven wrong."
—Tom Burchfield, Open Salon (read the full review)
"A scintillating, politically fuelled mystery that grabs you by the heart and never, never lets up. Think Graham Greene writing today with the narrative drive of Michael Connelly. Borders—in every sense of the word—are transformed and manipulated by writing that seems as effortless as it is compelling. Rarely does a novel knock you totally out of the park; this one does. A major work of literary art that breaks all genre borders." —Ken Bruen
"David Corbett's new novel is a bold look into the darkness that is human-trafficking, a sharp revelation of the intended and unintended consequences of such evil. With powerful and observant prose he takes us on the smuggling routes, into the lives of those involved, the moments of terror and of hope. After reading Do They Know I'm Running? you can't plead ignorance anymore." —Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone
"Do They Know I'm Running? . . . reveals the author's incredible depth of knowledge and nuanced understanding of the human condition. This is fiction that reads like non-fiction, a searing gut-punch of a thriller that literally had me holding my breath while I read. Every scene and every character is so thoroughly imagined that you feel less like a distant observer and more like a fly on the wall. Hold on to your heart and be prepared to reconsider just how far you would go to protect the things that matter to you most."
—Jill Lynch, Crimespree
"David Corbett's grainy realities bring these characters to life in all their beauty and ugliness . . . dragging the reader on a journey he or she won't soon forget." —Morgan Chilson, Fresh Fiction (read the full review)
"Do They Know I'm Running? is beautifully written, ambitious, honest, and thought-provoking." —Barbara Fister, Mystery Scene (read the full review)
". . . a heart-wrenching novel about family loyalty and the empty promises of the American dream for a Latino family." —Wendy Shortman, Daily Vanguard (Portland, OR) (read the full review)
"Just finished the novel. Had to put it aside for a bit. Between some of the gruelling shit your characters go through en route from El Salvador, combined with a story from my roommate's boyfriend about the cops here in Bolivia (Pol is an immigration officer), I got kinda spooked during my first few nights.
Nonetheless, I remain blown away. A solid mixture of the intimately personal with the far-reaching political, not to mention the distinctions you so vividly draw between Latin American cultures that most folks north of the border never bother to do. I could go on. Loved the afterword, as well.
In an unfortunate oversight, the list I prepared of all those individuals who gave so generously of their time and expertise in the writing of Do They Know I'm Running? was inadvertently omitted from the first edition of the book. I very much hope to rectify that with subsequent editions. Until then, if you're interested in learning who provided invaluable guidance in the writing of the book (and I hope you do), please click here for the word document or here for the PDF.
oque Montalvo is wise beyond his eighteen years. Orphaned at birth, a gifted musician, he's stuck in a California backwater, helping his Salvadoran aunt care for his damaged brother, an ex-marine badly wounded in Iraq.
