Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the U.S. to find work. Recently, it has

dawned on her that he isn’t the only man who has left town. In fact, there are almost no men in the village — they’ve all gone north. While watching “The Magnificent Seven,” Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men —

her own “Siete Magnificos” — to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the

bandidos who plan on taking it over.

Luis Urrea took a serious issue, the U.S.-Mexico border, and wrote a comic, terrifying, uplifting book about it. His descriptions of places are vivid and his characters colorful and memorable. The reader will fall in love with each of them, laugh at them and root for them until the end.

Urrea tells a great story that is hard to put down.