Decent People: A Novel

Set on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border and spanning more than a century, this powerful multi-generational debut charts the fate of a gifted, young Mexican-American woman and the corrupting consequences of misogyny, racism, and colonialism on her family, her community, and, ultimately, her life.

Martha and Omar have known each other since childhood, but when she unexpectedly returns to their east Dallas neighborhood after two years away to finish high school, he hardly recognizes her. She’s still the bookish, defiant, overachieving girl he knew, though now in a body that every guy, including Omar, notices.

But Martha is only interested in creating a life that matches her potential, and won’t allow the leering eyes, her devotion to her brother, or a budding friendship with Omar to change that. As we watch Martha overcome obstacle after obstacle in pursuit of a better future, we also bear witness to the lives of the three generations who preceded her: her mother, Mariana, a light-skinned beauty who’s been searching for a prince charming all her life; the silenced grandmother, Imelda, whom she never had the chance to know; and her great-grandmother, Ana, the fierce revolutionary who rode with Pancho Villa, only to meet a violent end. The more Martha learns about the systems that shaped these women, and the closer she grows to Omar, the more clearly she sees someone like her was never going to be allowed to just live on their own terms.

A blistering debut set on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, Decent People is at once a tender coming-of-age tale and a powerful reckoning with history, an unforgettable window into the ways entitlement, inheritance, and quiet violence can shape a life—especially a woman’s. In showing us that confronting our past—personal and collective—may reopen old wounds, Guel also demonstrates, with extraordinary intelligence and empathy, how owning that history is our best hope of healing.