2024 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards Silver Winner in Fiction: General
2023 American Writing Awards Finalist in Fiction: General
2023 American Fiction Awards Finalist in General Fiction
2023 Hawthorne Prize Shortlist
“Mary Camarillo's fictional beach town comes to vivid life with her intricate plotting and the southern California she knows as intimately as every back yard and sidewalk and kitchen her characters inhabit here, in this right-now novel. Her dark humor glows amid the streets of this coastal place.”
—Susan Straight, author of Mecca
“Those People Behind Us is set in a politically charged time and place, but the citizens of the place – flawed, conflicted, mortal—reminded me of the citizens of another time and place, the characters of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. Both sets of characters are equally bound together by time and place and the loneliness that is at the center of so many American lives. . . . They share your flaws, your sins, your secrets, your mortality. Camarillo has created what is by now a rarity, fully rounded characters that invoke what Flannery O’Connor called ‘the mystery of personality.’ These characters will stay with you long after you’ve finished the book. Like a Wellington Beach sunburn or some grains of sand in an oyster.”
—Lou Matthews, author of Shaky Town and LA Breakdown
“ . . . . we all need to step back from our prejudices and assumptions, take a deep breath, and realize that we are all in this together . . . . mesmerizing . . . . A worthwhile read with characters who grapple with timely political conundrums.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The stakes are high and the ground unstable in the fictional town of Wellington Beach where even a real estate agent’s seemingly innocuous pamphlets are loaded with undercurrents of significance and menace. Yet Camarillo’s novel offers hope, and, because of her facility with characters, I found myself unabashedly rooting for the fallible and suffering Wellington community.”
—Victoria Patterson, author of The Secret Habit of Sorrow and The Little Brother
“Camarillo has crafted another winner! Those People Behind Us is a beautiful, propulsive masterwork of empathy.”
—J. Ryan Stradal, author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest
“A gripping read that captures the pettiness, complexity, and surprising tenderness of living in a suburban environment.”
—Sara Flannery Murphy, author of Girl One and The Wonder State
“Fans of Liane Moriarty will savor the raw suspense and mystery Camarillo has skillfully woven. Juxtaposed against the bright and sunny Southern California sky, this multigenerational tale takes a deep dive into the minds and motivations of a seemingly harmless neighborhood as it strips back each dark and complicated layer, piece by piece.”
—Suzanne Simonetti, USA Today best-selling author of The Sound of Wings
“Thoughtful and riveting. In Those People Behind Us, Mary Camarillo trains an astute yet empathetic eye on the residents of one Southern California planned community in the year 2017, dissecting the mental and emotional cracks in our foundation at the brink of the Trump era.”
—Shelley Blanton-Stroud, author of Copy Boy and TomBoy
“Peyton Place with a twist of Trump.”
—Eduardo Santiago, author of Tomorrow They Will Kiss and Midnight Rhumba
“A fascinating and perceptive read about growth, acceptance, and understanding people different than yourself.”
—Diana Wagman, author of Spontaneous and Extraordinary October
“As skillfully as Elizabeth Strout and Susan Straight, Mary Camarillo captures her diverse beach town community with such precision you feel you are eavesdropping on real people’s lives, with all their dreams and disappointments, faults, and frailties. Though Camarillo touches on hot topics such as homelessness, low-income housing, racism, and political differences, she lets her characters express their differing views and leaves it to her readers to draw their own conclusions. What I liked most about this beautifully crafted novel was the ultimate truth woven throughout—that despite our differences, most of us are more alike than we are different.”
—Debra Thomas, author of Luz: A Novel
“A town that could be anywhere in America.”
—Leslie A. Rasmussen, author of After Happily Ever After and The Stories We Cannot Tell
“Those People Behind Us is a thought-provoking novel that will leave readers pondering the power of unity in the face of adversity. Prepare to be captivated by this compelling story. Camarillo should be proud of the new literary masterpiece that is sure to captivate readers around the globe. This novel boasts a cast of well-developed and compelling characters, each with a unique voice. With its heartwarming hometown feel, the story delves into the lives of these characters as they navigate the challenges of real-life problems. Prepare to be enchanted by this special offering.”
—Midwest Book Review
“The vivid characters that populate Mary Camarillo’s fictional community of Wellington Beach are a testament to the author’s deep knowledge of a very real and fascinating terrain. Their intersecting lives and backstories add a technicolor verisimilitude to her highly engaging new novel.”
—Nick Schou, author of Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World and Kill the Messenger
2023-06-07
In Camarillo’s novel, set in SoCal suburbia, the cast navigates life after Trump’s election.
Characters drive this story just as much as plot. Keith Nelson lives in his car after a showdown with his father. Ray Murdoch, one of the good guys, is his mother’s caretaker. Josh Kowalski is trying to get over his father’s abandonment of him and his mother, Martha. Then there is Jeannette Larson. She and her husband, Bob, lost their son in a hit-and-run. Bob is almost in denial, and Jeanette tries to treat her pain with promiscuity. Finally (among others) we have Realtor Lisa Kensington, a mover and shaker and self-appointed leader of the community (with another clueless husband, Eric). All this is in Wellington Beach in a neighborhood called Prestige Haven. But the city plans to build low-income housing right next door, and Lisa is outraged. More important, Bob, Eric, Keith are drawn to Doug, another guy in the neighborhood, and his friends—all committed MAGA bros. Soon political demonstrations bring the ugliness of our times to Wellington Beach, which had hoped to be spared all that. Events and dramatic tension escalate as readers wonder if everything will deteriorate into violence. It’s a good story with a lot of fine details and scenes. Keith Nelson is particularly fascinating. He isn’t stupid, but he is trusting and easily led; his childhood friend used to get him in trouble and leave him holding the bag. One clever device is to insert Lisa’s weekly promotional flyers as chapters—typical upbeat stuff that gradually gets edgier. The message of the book seems to be that we all need to step back from our prejudices and assumptions, take a deep breath, and realize that we are all in this together. A cliché, certainly, but mesmerizing nonetheless.
A worthwhile read with characters who grapple with timely political conundrums.
