Steal My Heart [Paperback]

Mark Brazaitis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Prize for The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala, Brazaitis now offers a debut novel that returns to a hardscrabble Central American landscape for a vividly drawn tragicomedy. Carlton James, an American ex-pat in Guatemala, is a short, balding, smalltime pickpocket/swindler working the tourist hotels of Panajachel. He double-dips his U.S. victims by stealing their cash at night and acting the benevolent fellow countryman by day, offering them an "emergency" loan that the grateful victims will pay back by sending a check to Carlton's "charity foundation" once they get home. One night Carlton is caught by his alluring native Indian maid, Rosario, and he decides to let her in on the action. The pair team up to steal wallets and jewelry before selling them in the capital. As a gringo, Carlton easily escapes suspicion from the incompetent police until they call on Ramiro Caal, a heartbroken detective-turned-farmer known for his honesty. Aided by a local Peace Corps volunteer, Ramiro solves the case with basic detective work, though when they go to arrest Carlton and Rosario, they feel pangs of guilt and sympathy for the fates of the petty thieves. That is, until Brazaitis's strong characters begin to spin like pinwheels, pushed by a force that sets them on a course for disaster. Confronted by the police, Rosario holds the three cops at gunpoint as she convinces Carlton to flee the country, but things get worse in the ensuing scuffle. The pair are separated and end up planning a jailbreak, with tragic results. The intense finale showcases Brazaitis's keen prose style and ends this Guatemalan love adventure on a luminous, dramatic note.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Van Neste Books (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929871031
• ISBN-13: 978-1929871032
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,368,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Brazaitis is the author of four books, including The Other Language, which won the 2008 ABZ Press First Book Prize, judged by Heather McHugh. Poems in the collection first appeared in The Sun, Witness, Notre Dame Review, Poetry East, Poetry International, and other literary magazines. One of the poems in the collection, "Soccer Until Dusk," is featured in Uncommon Journeys, a publication of the Peace Corps, and on the Peace Corps World Wise Schools' Web site.

Brazaitis is also the author of The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala, winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award, and Steal My Heart, a novel published in 2000 by Van Neste Books. His latest work of fiction, An American Affair: Stories, won the 2004 George Garrett Fiction Prize from Texas Review Press and was published in 2006.

A former Peace Corps volunteer and technical trainer, Brazaitis is an associate professor of English and the director of creative writing at West Virginia University. Born in East Cleveland, Ohio, he lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, with his wife and two daughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Van Neste Books pub. shares description of novel and reviews, November 30, 2000

By 

Karen V. N. Owen (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steal My Heart: A Novel (Hardcover)

What's a New York thief doing in Guatemala?

Practicing his craft.

The Manhattan pickpocket Carlton James has come to Guatemala to reform. Alas, he can't help himself: He soon begins to steal the wallets, purses, cameras and other valuables of the international tourists who visit Panajachel, a beautiful lakeside town under volcanoes. One night, he is caught in the act -- by his maid, Rosario, whose history is as murky and tragic as her country's. Initially wary of Rosario, Carlton soon finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Meanwhile, to catch the thief who threatens local tourism, the police department calls in Ramiro Caal, a detective who proved entirely too successful in solving his last case (evidence in a murder pointed to a high-ranking American official). Retired to his farm, Ramiro has no choice but to accept his latest assignment, and is assisted by his American friend, Ed Shell, a Peace Corps volunteer.

In a country where justice is a relative term -- where stealing also applies to indigenous culture and language -- neither Ramiro nor Ed feels comfortable with the task at hand.

STEAL MY HEART is written with the same insight into Guatemalan culture as Brazaitis' highly acclaimed short story collection, THE RIVER OF LOST VOICES. STEAL MY HEART is both a literary mystery and a quirky, endearing love story.

And Carlton James is unlike any American expatriate you've ever seen.

KIRKUS REVIEWS (9/1/00): "Delightful debut novel about American innocents abroad . . . and the Guatemalans whose lives they inevitably change. . . . A gently assured, low-key pastoral of lost souls who find, in banal evil and thwarted altruism, the inspiration for human kindness."

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (9/18/00): ". . . a vividly drawn tragicomedy. . . . The intense finale showcases Brazaitis' keen prose style and ends this Guatemalan love adventure on a luminous, dramatic note."

AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW (Nov./Dec. 2000): "Mark Brazaitis' STEAL MY HEART, a first novel set in Guatemala, is a good example of the [expatriate] genre.

MARIE CLAIRE (Nov. 2000): "A jaded Manhattan pickpocket moves to Guatemala in search of fresher pastures in Mark Brazaitis' romantic debut novel, STEAL MY HEART." (MARIE CLAIRE recommends/Read It)

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not up to my expectations., July 2, 2001

By 

Cindy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steal My Heart: A Novel (Hardcover)

Hmm, well, I wouldn't say that I hated this book, but this book contained nothing to keep my enthusiasm up to finish it. In fact, I couldn't finish the book. It was just so boring, and the words didn't flow and neither did the plot. The characters were totally dispicable. Well, maybe not totally, but they just didn't have heart and fire. I wouldn't recommend this book at all.