We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride is a novel set in Las Vegas. It tells the story of 8 year old Bashkim, a brave Albanian boy living with his immigrant parents and baby sister, Luis, a wounded young Mexican-American veteran just back from Iraq, and Avis, a 53 year old woman who has lived in Vegas her whole life and just finds out her husband is leaving her.

McBride draws us in as each of their stories unfold and eventually intersect. Heartbreaking, beautiful, hopeful, I couldn’t put this book down. A recommended read.