“José Skinner's long-awaited second collection measures up to, and indeed surpasses, his critically acclaimed debut Flight and Other Stories. . . . Such dazzling storytelling was worth the wait.”
—Rigoberto González, NBC News Latino
“Skinner’s stories are smart and colloquial, conflicted and comical. . . . He doesn’t pull punches with roles and he allows the individuals he follows to roam outside the box of assumed roles.”—Austin American-Statesman
“New Mexico is fertile literary soil for José Skinner’s second story collection, The Tombstone Race. The fourteen stories explore society through the lens of ethnicity, class, friendship, family conflict, and generational friction. Believable, quirky characters, young and old, inhabit the stories.”—Albuquerque Journal
“Skinner allows his characters to speak in a language that is evocative, unsentimental, and empirical.”—Pasatiempo
“The authenticity of José Skinner’s experiences as a Spanish/English interpreter in the courtrooms of the Southwest hit harder than an NFL linebacker.”—Latina
“With verisimilitude, compassion, and a surprising amount of nobility, Skinner navigates the mean streets of New Mexico with cunning and grace.”—Kirkus Reviews
“These are New Mexico stories, but they belong to all of those who suffer in the hidden world of deprivation and desperation that much of America would rather not see. There is beauty in Skinner’s world, but it is not the easy beauty of green summer days along a blue river, but the honesty of looking a desperate person in the eye and finding humanity there.”—Colorado Review
“A gifted writer.”—Santa Fe New Mexican
“Skinner’s stories, in large part because of his characters’ rootedness, break new ground. The most appealing aspects of the book are the questions of identity and whether the characters are coming or going. A book people will seek out.”—Oscar Casares, author of Amigoland: A Novel and Brownsville: Stories
“There is something really remarkable and grand going on in his work, his fiction.”—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbird’s Daughter: A Novel and The Devil’s Highway: A True Story
“A rare and stunning collection. These are powerful and necessary stories that we’ve gone too long without, and now that Skinner has brought them to us in such shimmering prose and unflinching empathy, we are in his debt.”—Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Remember Me Like This: A Novel and Corpus Christi: Stories
