Alejandro Puyana, who came to the United States from Venezuela at the age of twenty-six, received his MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. His work has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, The American Scholar, and elsewhere, and his story "Hands of Dirty Children" was reprinted in Best American Short Stories. He lives with his wife (the writer Brittani Sonnenberg) and daughter in Austin, Texas.

"In his fast-paced novel, Alejandro Puyana recounts the struggles and impossible choices of a family in deeply troubled Venezuela . . . Puyana . . . squeezes adventure, even dark comedy, from misery and horror . . . It's a Latin American tradition, a coping mechanism turned vocation for authors from Roberto Bolaño to Mariana Enríquez."--Annie Correal, New York Times Book Review

"Propulsive, pulse-quickening . . . Cinematic settings, evolving characters, and an explosive plot support a story of love and politics."--Kirkus Reviews

"[A] beauty to behold . . . A novel bursting with love for Venezuela, for its people and landscape and history. It's got a breakneck pace that contains the multitudes of entire lives in its exploration of people caught in a revolutionary struggle and still just trying to get by."--Kyle Williams, Full Stop

"Epic doesn't begin to describe this extraordinary novel. Freedom Is a Feast is as vivid and wondrous as your best dream, as unsettling and unforgettable as your worst. They say you can't fit the entire world into a novel, but Puyana comes close. What a gift he has given readers, what a profound, shattering, inspiring gift."--Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and This Is How You Lose Her

" 'Born storyteller' gets thrown around too easily, but how else would we believe that this is a debut? Freedom Is a Feast is fearlessly ambitious, dizzyingly complex, gorgeously written, and chock full of magic, sin, loss, and enduring love. A novel like this comes with fantastic precedent--García Márquez, Allende--but seems to have arrived fully formed, all by its dazzling self."--Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Seven Killings and Black Leopard, Red Wolf

"Alejandro Puyana's debut novel, Freedom Is a Feast, sneaks up on you, ensnares you, then explodes around you. It is a tour de force. Applause for the new master."

"Freedom Is a Feast is a rare and explosive novel about the lengths to which the human heart will go for what is just and what is right. Alejandro Puyana announces himself as a major new talent with this unflinching debut of love, revolution, and family."--Kali Fajardo-Anstine, National Book Award finalist for Sabrina & Corina

"Spanning some fifty years and populated with unforgettable characters, Freedom Is a Feast is a debut of tremendous scope and gravity. Alejandro Puyana writes brilliantly about the ceaseless human quest to make a better world."

"Heart-stopping, heartbreaking, expansive, riveting: Alejandro Puyana's Freedom Is a Feast is an astonishing first novel by a writer capable of showing the sweep of history and the souls of his characters at the same time."
--Elizabeth McCracken, National Book Award finalist and author of Bowlaway

"In this vivid and arresting novel lives are lived in triage. A man is 'a sheathed knife, ' and people are 'bargaining chips' during the dangerous reign of Hugo Chávez. Stories of humanity and even love shine through brutality, while lives change--or end--in an instant. Citizens are faced with impossible choices in the quest for freedom, and the need to honor their culture. Freedom Is a Feast is a memorable debut, and Puyana is already a master storyteller."

"Freedom Is a Feast is a searing and soaring novel, a book that lays bare the costs of tyranny and the heart-rending sacrifices of those who dare to fight against it. By rendering the lives of characters from his native Venezuela with such clear-eyed compassion, Alejandro Puyana has given readers an extraordinary window into the soul of a nation. Freedom Is a Feast is the perfect novel for this political moment--a story of anger and loss, of courage and hope, and, with luck, of change."--Bret Anthony Johnston, author of the national bestseller Remember Me Like This

"Puyana debuts with a gripping story of a family shaped by Venezuela's tumultuous history during the Cold War and early 21st century . . . wrenching . . . Puyana's beautifully crafted narrative explores the complexity of his characters' choices and loyalties. This novel is impossible to put down."--Publishers Weekly (starred)