The novel was republished in 1987 after Steven Moore, then an editor for the small publisher Dalkey Archive Press, found the book at a barn sale in Massachusetts, read it, and contacted Alfau after a friend had found his telephone number in the Manhattan phone book.
[2] The novel's second edition was modestly successful, but Alfau refused payment, instructing the publisher to use the earnings from Locos to fund some other unpublished work.
When Moore asked if he had written any other books, Alfau produced the manuscript for Chromos, which had been resting in a drawer since 1948.
A comic story of Spanish immigrants to the United States contending with their two cultures, Chromos went on to be nominated for the National Book Award in 1990.
Alfau's last years were spent in an octogenarian nursing home in New York, thanks to an indigent pension granted by the city council.