LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI BOOK PRIZE 2024
A KIRKUS REVIEWS "BEST OF 2023" SELECTION
Award-winning author and immigration attorney Orlando Ortega-Medina returns to 1990s San Francisco in The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants, a powerful family drama that plays out within a captivating legal thriller.
Attorney Marc Mendes, the estranged son of a prominent rabbi and a burned-out lawyer with addiction issues, plots his exit from the big city to a more peaceful life in idyllic Napa Valley. But before he can realize his dream, the US government summons his Salvadoran life-partner Isaac Perez to immigration court, threatening him with deportation.
As Marc battles to save Isaac, his world is further upended by a dark and alluring client, who aims to tempt him away from his messy life. Torn between his commitment to Isaac and the pain-numbing escapism offered by his client, Marc is forced to choose between the lesser of two evils while confronting his twin demons of past addiction and guilt over the death of his first lover.
The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants is an extraordinary and timely tale about the value of family and friendship, loyalty and love, in the face of adversity.
REVIEWS
"…a potent legal thriller that doesn’t shy away from major personal and societal issues." - LOS ANGELES TIMES
"Full of twists and turns, this novel explores the inhumanity found in immigration law and the true meaning of loyalty." - TODAY
"An exposé of the cruelties of immigration law; a meditation on family and homeland." - KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
"A noteworthy novel that will have resonance for many readers." - OUT IN PRINT
"Stuffed with romantic melodrama, sex, seduction, and the serpentine politics of immigration, this novel is a tantalizing morsel." - BAY AREA REPORTER
"[A] charged psychological novel in which a lawyer navigates the crossroads of his past, present, and future." - FOREWORD REVIEWS
"Heartfelt" - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Orlando Ortega-Medina’s riveting novel The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants wears its politics on its sleeve… In novelising his advocacy for equal rights, Ortega-Medina follows a long tradition in American literature." - BOOKANISTA
ADVANCE PRAISE
"Orlando Ortega-Medina has written a compelling novel set within fraught familial, religious, legal and romantic realities of gay love." - RABBI STEVEN GREENBERG, Author of Wrestling With God & Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition
"There’s plenty of drama inside and outside the courtroom…plus stalking and 90s homophobia–in this deeply moving novel with depth and heart that explores how difficult it is to find a place called home in a world filled with hate." - LEV RAPHAEL, Author of Winter Eyes
"[A] provocative, big-hearted page-turner of a novel." - DANIEL A. OLIVAS, Author of How to Date a Flying Mexican: New and Collected Stories
"The thrills in this legal thriller come not only from its plot but also from its rich portrait of the varieties of American estrangement."- MICHAEL LOWENTHAL, Author of Sex With Strangers
"The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants is a drama-packed legal thriller and a love story about the everyday pressures that immigration uncertainty can put on a long-term relationship. Ortega-Medina’s breathless storytelling will keep you turning the pages, wondering if this love can last." - K.M. SOEHNLEIN, Author of Army of Lovers