Tio Jorge by Vincent Meis

Tio Jorge is a novel about a young woman caught between two worlds, that of her affluent, fair-haired mother and her brooding Mexican father.Five-year-old Rebecca Delon watches from the fierce grip of her father’s arms as the police take away Tio Jorge (George Edwards). She doesn’t know that her mother has just met her death by falling from a cliff along the California coast and that Tio Jorge will be accused of the crime.In one day she loses the three most important people in her young life—her mother to death, her father to sadness, and Tio Jorge to the police. Sixteen years later Rebecca graduates from Stanford University.She has been living a life of privilege in the care of her well-to-do maternal grandparents, but sets out on a mission to bring justice to Tio Jorge, who she believes was falsely accused. On a trip to Mexico to meet her father’s family for the first time, Rebecca becomes further convinced of Tio Jorge’s innocence. Back in California she learns that he is out of prison and living a reclusive but tranquil life not far from where she grew up.When Rebecca and Tio Jorge’s lives intersect again, they must cope with the remnants of hurt stirred up by delving into the past, which challenge their notions of justice and truth, and ultimately their renewed friendship.At the end of Rebecca’s journey awaits a new millennium family to replace the one she lost as a child.