YOUNG ADULT:  From the Pulitzer Prize-winner Oscar Hijuelos comes a novel about identity, circumstance, and a way in which we all struggle to accept our true selves. In gritty, clear prose, Dark Dude captures New York City in the 1960s--violent, decaying, slouching away from the American Dream--and brings to life a character who has no choice but to head out west in search of something better. But, when Rico and his ex-druggie friend arrive in Wisconsin, they discover that picket-fenced apple-pie people can be just as violent and judgmental as the neighbors they left behind. No longer an outsider by appearances, Rico is forced to swallow an uncomfortable truth: he is still an outsider.

An ALA 2009 Best Books for Young Adults.