The year is 1961. Seventy-year-old Cosimo Infante Cano, a Cuban-born artist in need of inspiration, follows his lover to Texas in what was to be a temporary sabbatical from their life in France. Unexpectedly, he finds himself stranded in San Antonio, nearly penniless, with little more than the clothes on his back and an extraordinary pocket watch. His long hair and eccentric attire make him an odd sight in what he has been told is a conservative cultural backwater. Cosimo's French and Cuban passports put a cloud of suspicion over him as events elsewhere in the world play out. Algeria is in open revolt against France. Freedom Riders are being assaulted in Mississippi, and the Bay of Pigs debacle is front-page news. Cosimo confronts nightmares and waking terrors rooted in the horror he experienced during the Great War of 1914-1918. His friends-students, librarians, shopkeepers, laborers, lawyers, bankers, and even a parrot-coalesce around this elderly French artist as he attempts to return to what remains of his shattered life. His new friends feel empathy for his impoverished condition, but his unconventional actions and uncompromising ethics confuse them. He creates charming drawings he refuses to sell and paints a house simply for the pleasure of making a difference. In the process he forever alters the lives of those who thought they were helping him.

Odd Birds

Literature & Fiction

Perez, Severo

Literary

Texas Christian University Press

In 1931, Cornelius Coffey, and Johnny C. Robinson were already licensed pilots who had built their own plane, when a chance encounter with Willa Brown, a graduate student at Northwestern University, changed all their lives and made history.

The Challengers Aero Club

United States

Script & Post Script

“Perez’s debut historical novel fictionalizes the story of three pioneering black aviators who changed the face of aeronautics. When one thinks about America’s aviation heroes, the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart come to mind. Lesser known are Cornelius C. Coffey, John C. Robinson and Willa B. Brown, real life AfricanAmerican historical figures who revolutionized aviation from the late 1920s through World War II.” ... “An engaging, thorough novel about forgotten heroes of aviation history.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS

Willa Brown: & The Challengers

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Filmmaker's Journey (Wittliff Collections Literary Series)

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Texas A&M University Press

Filmmaker's Journey

College Station : Texas A&M University Press

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Books by Perez, Severo