Top ten books about the troubles in Los Angeles

Steph Cha is the author of Your House Will Pay and the Juniper Song crime trilogy. She’s an editor and critic whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. A native of the San Fernando Valley, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two basset hounds.

At the Guardian, Cha tagged ten top books about the troubles of contemporary Los Angeles, including a few titles that helped her craft Your House Will Pay. One title on the list:

Southland by Nina Revoyr (2003)

When I started working on Your House Will Pay, I hoped to write something that was half as smart and affecting as Southland. Revoyr’s novel takes place in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, following two families – one black, one Japanese – over several decades. It’s a character-driven saga with the engine of a crime novel, unravelling a horrific multiple murder that took place in the chaotic days of the Watts Rebellion in 1965.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue