The Book of Unknown Americans
Cristina Henríquez
Available as Paperback, eBook
Inspired by the story of her father, Cristina Henríquez has crafted a deeply moving novel about the many different voices of the immigrant experience, and one family in particular.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
We had been planning our life here for so long. Filling out papers, hoping, praying, waiting. We had all of our dreams pinned on this place, but the pin was thin and delicate and it was too soon to tell whether it was going to hold much of anything at all.
When Alma Rivera arrives in Newark, Delaware she is brim full of the promise and possibilities of her new American home. Hope that her luminous daughter Maribel will be helped by the specialist education the US can provide, and faith that her husband Arturo will flourish in a country that celebrates the hard-working and the talented.
But the reality of life without status, money, family and friends soon becomes apparent. And when violence casts its shadow, Alma realizes that her biggest mistake was assuming that everything that could go wrong in their lives already had …
In this tale of great imagination and grace, Cristina Henríquez gives voice to the stories of the displaced and unknown - the untold stories of our time that resonate for us all.
“The Book of Unknown Americans is filled with the fiercest kinds of love - of a boy for a beautiful girl, of stricken parents for an injured daughter, of an immigrant community for an impossible America. In this powerful novel, Cristina Henríquez gives us unforgettable characters, whose destinies are shaped by forces - senseless, random, political - far beyond their control, and yet whose resilience yields a most profound and unexpected kind of beauty”
Ruth Ozeki
author Of A Tale For The Time Being
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“The strength of the book is in the quiet details … lit by sharp observations”
guardian
“A striking original … With a simple, unadorned prose that, in the end, rises to the level of poetry, Henríquez achieves the seemingly impossible: Without a trace of sentimentality, without an iota of self-indulgence or dogma, she tells us about coming to America”
washington Post
“Cristina Henríquez’s novel is a triumph not just of storytelling, but of American storytelling, a novel whose breadth and power blow open any traditional definition of ‘American.’ Henríquez pulls us into the lives of her characters with such mastery that we hang onto them just as fiercely as they hang onto one another, and their dreams. This passionate, powerful novel will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page”
Ben Fountain
author Of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
“Gripping, memorable … A novel that can both make you think and break your heart”
san Francisco Chronicle
Cristina Henríquez
Cristina Henríquez is the author of the novel The World In Half and the story collection Come Together, Fall Apart, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection. Cristina earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Chicago.
cristinahenriquez.com