Books like The Tortilla Curtain

The Tortilla Curtain is a 1995 novel by American author T.C. Boyle. It is about middle-class values, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. In 1997, it was awarded the French Prix Médicis Étranger prize for best foreign novel.

Cándido Rincón (33) and América (his pregnant common law wife, 17) are two Mexicans who enter the United States illegally, dreaming of a good life in their own little house somewhere in California. Meanwhile, they are homeless and camping at the bottom of the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles, in the hills above Malibu. Another couple, Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, have recently moved into a gated community on top of Topanga, in order to be closer to nature yet be close enough to the city to enjoy those amenities. Kyra is a successful real estate agent while Delaney keeps house, looks after Kyra's son by her first marriage and writes a regular column for an environmentalist magazine.