Spooner was born in Richmond, and has lived in McHenry County most of his life, except for college and a three-year stint in the Army.

The Spooners have two daughters, Maresa, 13, and Laura, 11.

Did you study writing in college?

I didn't actually study anything with writing. That's just something I picked up on my own, mainly from reading literature as opposed to pop fiction or formula fiction.

How did you go about writing the book?

The book was written in 2000. I had actually written my first novel back in the mid to late '90s. That was my first run. It just kind of sat on the shelf, I didn't really do anything with that.

In 2000, I took some time off work because I wanted to focus on writing and write a book that I had in mind. So I had three to four months offs. I spent two to three months of that time in Guadalahara in Mexico, which is where my wife's family is at. I've got a little writing room down there. That's where the majority of this book was written.

What were your ambitions as you wrote it?

The scope of the book was something that was doable. I wasn't going to write, "War and Peace" in three months. You were going to write, hopefully, a decent literary novel in that time.

What is the book about?

The book is narrated by an anthropology student at the University of Chicago. He's doing his dissertation on Mexican migrant workers. ...

While [the narrator] is doing that he meets some of these guys and he hears some of their stories and tragedies of crossing the border.

Most of the people are from this small town. La Purísma, which means "the pure" in Spanish, is the name of this fictitious village in central Mexico.

But you're not concerned purely with plot, right?

It's really more of the whole social thing. The thing I try to get at in the book is that it's really an economic basis why these people are making this migration up here.

The other side of the coin is that for a lot of these people, especially the young guys in their late teens, it's become a rite of passage. ... It's like, "All the other guys are doing it."

Your interest in Mexico obviously began with your wife, but how did it evolve?

It was the trips there, spending a lot of time. I've traveled around there quite a bit. People have different ideas about Mexico. They're going to think of the tourist places, but the Mexico that I know are the cities without tourists. What I love about Mexico is a lot of the Colonial architecture and the overall history of the country. And there's a big literary history there, too.

How did Mexican literature interest you?

One of the first writers that I really liked a lot was Carlos Fuentes, who's probably the most famous Mexican writer and still living. His books showed me the real possibilities of literature. Before that I was pretty honed in on academic stuff. If the guy didn't have a Ph.D, I wouldn't pick up his book. Then I found out how wrong that was when I started reading more literature.

Who are some of your other influences?

My bigger, bigger influences are Steinbeck – Camus is one I liked a lot. I read a lot of Lawrey. Faulkner I've dabbled in.

Was it hard to find a publisher?

It was considered a literary book, so you're in trouble already because it's not John Grisham formula. I don't even read formula fiction or pop fiction. Not that it's bad; it's just I haven't gotten into it. I wanted to write a story that's a little more introspective and hopefully has a little more depth to it. Even though it's a shorter novel I think there's definitely a social statement in there.

You found a publisher that specializes in Hispanic culture.

Yeah, they definitely do. It's Floricanto Press, and they're a niche company. It's nice to have a company like this that will focus on these things. ... This story was a good fit for their press.

When did you start writing?

I started writing what I would call slices of life, vignettes or brief little stories probably back in the early '90s. I was going to grad school in DePaul doing economics. We had our first baby. That changed what the focus was at that time.

What made you start?

I think reading is really what drew me into wanting to write. I mean reading good stuff.

When did you learn to speak Spanish?

I'm not fluent in Spanish, but I can get around. I've got a good crutch with Sofia. But, yeah, I can definitely get around. I took a year or two of Spanish in college, and I've spent a lot of time in Mexico with her family.

You were writing about another culture; how did you want to portray it?

While I was writing this book one of the things I clearly wanted to steer away from were those stereotypes and clichés. Even writing the dialogue of the Mexican people, there's no "meesters" in it.

What is the one stereotype about Mexicans that you would most want to dispell?

The majority of the Mexican people that are coming up here, they're the economically disenfranchised down there. They just don't have the opportunities down there to make a good life. They're not coming up here for McDonald's and Burger King. They're coming up here because, "You know what, we've got to make a better go of it for our kids."

The people in the middle and upper class, they're generally not looking to come up here. I think there's a vision that everyone in Mexico wants to pack up the family truck or walk up here, and that's clearly not the case.