Happy Birthday Jesús is an insightful and spell-binding novel of and about our times, when the relationship between race and violence dominates the news and threatens not only our personal security but our confidence in our social processes. This novel recreates the making of a sociopath. It is written by a criminal defense lawyer whose extensive experience has been representing individuals such as the protagonist Jesús Olivas. Whether Jesús is a victim or the bane of society is left to the reader’s judgment in this novel which details the painful recollections of Jesús himself. What is clear, however, is that the boiling pot of Jesús’ emotions that finally erupts in senseless violence has ben cooking for years on the flames of religious fanaticism, poverty and race hatred. All of the social institutions that should have nurtured and protected Jesús – family, school, church, the court – ultimately failed him, leading him to strike back uncontrollably, irrationally.