Pasadena Announces One City One Story for 2009

Pasadena has announced its choice for 2009 One City One Story. This year's book will be Luis Alberto Urrea's novel The Hummingbird's Daughter. According to Publishers Weekly:

"[Urrea] fashions an astonishing novel set against the guerrilla violence of post–Civil War southwestern border disputes and incipient revolution. His brilliant prose is saturated with the cadences and insights of Latin-American magical realism and tempered by his exacting reporter's eye and extensive historical investigation. The book is wildly romantic, sweeping in its effect, employing the techniques of Catholic hagiography, Western fairy tale, Indian legend and everyday family folklore against the gritty historical realities of war, poverty, prejudice, lawlessness, torture and genocide. Urrea effortlessly links Teresita's supernatural calling to the turmoil of the times, concealing substantial intellectual content behind effervescent storytelling and considerable humor."

I think it's nice to see the city recognize its rich Latino heritage, although I haven't read the book yet. What do people think of the choice? Has anybody read it already? Who's planning to?

According to the Pasadena Star News, Urrea will give a reading at the new Pasadena Convention Center on April 5.