gloria esquerra

Scout Logan, a good-looking, 17-year old white kid, has grown up rough living on reservations with his dad, a Navy medical doctor detailed to Indian Health Service and consigned to Indian Health hospitals through out the West and Southwest. When Scout arrives in the dry, desolate desert town of Parker, Arizona, he finds himself caught in the middle of an on-going racial struggle between two high school groups: the Manley gang—a group of bigoted white boys—and the Russell brothers—three Native American siblings. Scout knows that sooner or later the conflict will force him to make a choice and he will have to fight for what is right.

As soon as Scout resigns himself to a bleak year ahead, hope sparkles in the high school library in the form of Rosalie Russell, a beautiful, intelligent Indian sophomore. He is smitten. However, Rosalie is more than he bargained for; not only is she not interested when every other girl in school is swooning over him, she doesn’t date, but focuses only on her grades and acquiring an academic scholarship. And if her indifference to him isn’t bad enough, Scout has to deal with a dangerous, psychopathic thug obsessed with Rosalie who will (and has) cut anyone who tries to date her. Scout knows his all-consuming passion will lead him into a fight for both their lives.

As Scout settles into school and tries to win Rosalie’s love, he becomes friends with her brother and other Indian kids. He sees in her brothers, the last vestiges of noble warriors of a bygone era. They have the courage, integrity, and the fighting spirit needed to survive in this place where poverty, bigotry, and the solace of alcohol is wreaking havoc on Indian culture, and on man’s humanity. While Scout’s love for Rosalie leave him powerless in her presence, his pride demands that he stand up to anyone who tries to take a piece of him, or take her away.

In this place, a man has only heart and pride with which to fight the war against bigotry and despair. Scout’s courage, compassion, and love for Rosalie, and respect for her brothers, show his capacity for greatness in heart and in spirit. Yet, as Rosalie becomes the air he breathes, Scout begins to see harbingers of doom, including the eerie windstorm from an atomic explosion in the desert. Teased for being superstitious, his nightmares grow, as does his fears that he cannot protect Rosalie and the others he cares for from what may befall them.

Combining the tragedy of John Steinbeck, the darkness of Edgar Allan Poe, and the mysticism of Native American culture, FALLING STARS is a story where love and nobility fight for survival as the natural world is crushed under prejudice, inequality, the dehumanizing effect of capitalism, and the specter of the atomic age.