"All 13 stories are realistic and unsparing, as unflinching and hard-hitting as they are beautiful. It's difficult to find comparisons to an author as original as Urrea, a kind of literary badass who still believes in love. The Water Museum is a brilliant, powerful collection, and Luis Alberto Urrea is a master storyteller with a rock and roll heart."—NPR.org

"Urrea, celebrated for his historical sagas and nonfiction, offers 13 stories that reflect both sides of his Mexican-American heritage while stretching the reader's understanding of human boundaries...Urrea's command of language is matched only by his empathy for his characters."—Kirkus (Starred Review)

"Urrea has a wonderful eye for details and captures each story's context with wonderfully sharp observations... These stories are vibrant, tender, and invoke a strong sense of place."—Publishers Weekly

The author reads his descriptive stories at a steady, poetic pace for the listener. Luis Alberto Urrea's narration is soft, almost tender, and raspy in parts. He shifts capably between the thoughts and dialogue of male and female characters, handling both with sensitivity. Urrea enjoys his prose, and so does the listener, as he describes the difficult choices facing people who live in the American West. His measured cadence doesn't prepare the listener for the twists and turns in many of the stories, such as the surprise ending in "Amapola," winner of the Edgar award in 2010. In the American West and Southwest of these stories, the landscape is harsh, lives even harsher, but Urrea's narration is as gentle as a whisper. M.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine