It’s the summer of 2017 in Wellington Beach, California, a suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices—divisions that change the lives of five neighbors.
Each character confronts death, betrayal, financial decline, and loneliness as they search for home and community in a neighborhood where no one can agree who belongs.
Real estate agent Lisa Kensington juggles her job, her shopaholic husband, a mother who knows how to push her buttons, and teenagers with ideas of their own. Ray Gorman, a haunted Vietnam vet, lives with and cares for his aging mother. Keith Nelson, an ex-con, lives in his car, parked near his parents’ house. Sixteen-year-old Josh Kowalski works through the shock of his father’s abandonment by slamming on a drum set. Jeannette Larsen, an aerobics teacher numbed by horrific tragedy, turns away from her husband and toward reckless behavior.
In the end, they all discover that despite their differences, they are more connected than any of them would have imagined.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Each character confronts death, betrayal, financial decline, and loneliness as they search for home and community in a neighborhood where no one can agree who belongs.
Real estate agent Lisa Kensington juggles her job, her shopaholic husband, a mother who knows how to push her buttons, and teenagers with ideas of their own. Ray Gorman, a haunted Vietnam vet, lives with and cares for his aging mother. Keith Nelson, an ex-con, lives in his car, parked near his parents’ house. Sixteen-year-old Josh Kowalski works through the shock of his father’s abandonment by slamming on a drum set. Jeannette Larsen, an aerobics teacher numbed by horrific tragedy, turns away from her husband and toward reckless behavior.
In the end, they all discover that despite their differences, they are more connected than any of them would have imagined.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Thoughtful and riveting. In Those People Behind Us, Mary Camarillo trains an astute yet empathetic eye on the residents of one Southern California planned community in the year 2017, dissecting the mental and emotional cracks in our foundation at the brink of the Trump era." - Shelley Blanton-Stroud
"A gripping read that captures the pettiness, complexity, and surprising tenderness of living in a suburban environment." - Sara Flannery Murphy
"The stakes are high and the ground unstable in the fictional town of Wellington Beach where even a real estate agent's seemingly innocuous pamphlets are loaded with undercurrents of significance and menace. Yet Camarillo's novel offers hope, and, because of her facility with characters, I found myself unabashedly rooting for the fallible and suffering Wellington community." - Victoria Patterson
"A town that could be anywhere in America." - Leslie A Rasmussen
"Peyton Place with a twist of Trump." - Eduardo Santiago
"Fans of Liane Moriarty will savor the raw suspense and mystery Camarillo has skillfully woven. Juxtaposed against the bright and sunny Southern California sky, this multigenerational tale takes a deep dive into the minds and motivations of a seemingly harmless neighborhood as it strips back each dark and complicated layer, piece by piece." - Suzanne Simonetti
"Camarillo has crafted another winner! Those People Behind Us is a beautiful, propulsive masterwork of empathy." - J Ryan Stradal
"As skillfully as Elizabeth Strout and Susan Straight, Mary Camarillo captures her diverse beach town community with such precision you feel you are eavesdropping on real people's lives, with all their dreams and disappointments, faults, and frailties. Though Camarillo touches on hot topics such as homelessness, low-income housing, racism, and political differences, she lets her characters express their differing views and leaves it to her readers to draw their own conclusions. What I liked most about this beautifully crafted novel was the ultimate truth woven throughout - that despite our differences, most of us are more alike than we are different." - Debra Thomas
"A fascinating and perceptive read about growth, acceptance, and understanding people different than yourself." - Diana Wagman
"A gripping read that captures the pettiness, complexity, and surprising tenderness of living in a suburban environment." - Sara Flannery Murphy
"The stakes are high and the ground unstable in the fictional town of Wellington Beach where even a real estate agent's seemingly innocuous pamphlets are loaded with undercurrents of significance and menace. Yet Camarillo's novel offers hope, and, because of her facility with characters, I found myself unabashedly rooting for the fallible and suffering Wellington community." - Victoria Patterson
"A town that could be anywhere in America." - Leslie A Rasmussen
"Peyton Place with a twist of Trump." - Eduardo Santiago
"Fans of Liane Moriarty will savor the raw suspense and mystery Camarillo has skillfully woven. Juxtaposed against the bright and sunny Southern California sky, this multigenerational tale takes a deep dive into the minds and motivations of a seemingly harmless neighborhood as it strips back each dark and complicated layer, piece by piece." - Suzanne Simonetti
"Camarillo has crafted another winner! Those People Behind Us is a beautiful, propulsive masterwork of empathy." - J Ryan Stradal
"As skillfully as Elizabeth Strout and Susan Straight, Mary Camarillo captures her diverse beach town community with such precision you feel you are eavesdropping on real people's lives, with all their dreams and disappointments, faults, and frailties. Though Camarillo touches on hot topics such as homelessness, low-income housing, racism, and political differences, she lets her characters express their differing views and leaves it to her readers to draw their own conclusions. What I liked most about this beautifully crafted novel was the ultimate truth woven throughout - that despite our differences, most of us are more alike than we are different." - Debra Thomas
"A fascinating and perceptive read about growth, acceptance, and understanding people different than yourself." - Diana Wagman
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