{"product_id":"it-calls-you-back-an-odyssey-through-love-addiction-revolutions-and-healing-9781416584179","title":"It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing","description":"\u003cb\u003eLuis Rodriguez, author of the award-winning and bestselling classic memoir \u003ci\u003eAlways Running\u003c\/i\u003e, chronicles his harrowing journey from a drugged-out gang member to one of the most revered figures in Chicano literature.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHundreds of thousands of readers came to know Luis J. Rodriguez through his fearless classic, \u003ci\u003eAlways Running\u003c\/i\u003e, which chronicled his early life as a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles. The long-awaited follow-up, \u003ci\u003eIt Calls You Back\u003c\/i\u003e is the equally harrowing story of Rodriguez starting over, at age eighteen, after leaving gang life--the only life he really knew. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe book opens with Rodriguez's final stint in jail as a teenager and follows his struggle to kick heroin, renounce his former life, and search for meaningful work. He describes with heartbreaking honesty his challenges as a father, and his difficulty leaving his rages and addictions completely behind. Even as he breaks with \"la vida loca\" and begins to discover success as a writer and an activist, Rodriguez finds that his past--the crimes, the drugs, the things he'd seen and done--has a way of calling him back. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen his oldest son is sent to prison for attempted murder, Rodriguez is forced to confront his shortcomings as a father, and to acknowledge how and why his own history is repeating itself, right before his eyes. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDeeply insightful and beautifully written, \u003ci\u003eIt Calls You Back\u003c\/i\u003e is an odyssey through love, addiction, revolutions, and healing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodriguez began writing in his early teens and has won national recognition as a poet, journalist, fiction writer, children's book writer, and critic. Currently working as a peacemaker among gangs, Rodriguez helped create Tia Chucha's Café \u0026amp; Centro Cultural, a multiarts, multimedia cultural center in the northeast San Fernando Valley. He is the recipient of the 2021\u003ci\u003e Los Angeles Times \u003c\/i\u003eRobert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. Visit him at LuisJRodriguez.com.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Atria Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50613397913874,"sku":"9781416584179","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_814f887f-7631-4e95-a96c-a78f04bdc9f3.jpg?v=1732399569","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/it-calls-you-back-an-odyssey-through-love-addiction-revolutions-and-healing-9781416584179","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}