For more information about the One Book, One San Diego program, including a list of events around the 2014 selections for adults, teens and kids, visit www.kpbs.org/onebook. This discussion guide was created by Lysley Tenorio.
"Felix Starro"
Papa Felix, a once-famous faith healer, is in San Francisco conducting psychic surgeries on ill Filipino-Americans, along with his grandson, Felix. The surgeries are a scam, but despite his reservations young Felix has no choice but to go along with the family business. But unbeknownst to Papa Felix, Felix plans to take their earnings and leave his grandfather behind, and start a new life in America, with the help of Flora Ramirez, a woman who deals in fake identities for those who remain in America illegally. However, Felix has last-minute apprehensions about his plan when he learns that he’ll have to take a new name—“John Cruz”—if he stays in California. But after learning that Papa Felix has duped an unwitting hotel maid into believing he’s “extracted” her unwanted baby, young Felix seeks out Flora Ramirez again.
