To those outside it, Pilsen is a vast barrio on the south side of Chicago.
To Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski, it is a world of violence and decay and beauty, of nuance and pure chance.
It is a place where the smell of cooking frijoles is washed away by that of dead fish in the river, where vendettas are a daily routine, and where a fourteen-year-old immigrant might hold the ability bring people back from the dead.
Simultaneously tough and tender, these stories mark the debut of a writer pois.
