Foreword by Junot Díaz

$18.99

$24.99 CAD

Format

Format:

Also available from:

A first-generation Cuban son comes of age in the debut––and most autobiographical––novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.

Winner of the Ingram Merrill Foundation Award and the Rome Prize

Hector Santinio is the younger son of Alejo and Mercedes, who moved to New York from Cuba in the mid-1940s. The family of four shares their modest apartment with extended relatives in Harlem, where homesickness and nostalgia are dispelled by nights of dancing and raucous parties. But life’s realities are nevertheless harsh in the Santinio family’s adoptive land.

When Mercedes takes Hector and his brother to visit Cuba, to better know her culture, Hector contracts a serious illness that leads to a terrifying period of hospitalization back in the United States where, isolated from his family, he loses much of his ability to speak Spanish. And it is this fracturing that sparks a lifelong quest to not only reconcile his Cuban identity with his American one, but to also understand his parents’ ambitions and anxieties within the country at large.

In this profoundly moving account of immigrant life, Oscar Hijuelos displays, once again, his mastery over both character and language—and sets readers on an unforgettable journey of hope, longing, and self-discovery.

Includes a Reading Group Guide.

Genre:

"A story that stands up for the dignity of American immigrants."
Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican
"Never loses the syntax of magic . . . a novel of great warmth and tenderness."
New York Times Book Review
"Elegiac as well as bittersweet and celebratory."
Publishers Weekly
"Marked by eloquently trimmed prose, great assurance, and uncompromising darkness."
Kirkus

On Sale: Apr 9, 2024
Page Count: 272 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN-13: 9781538722251

By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Oscar Hijuelos

About the Author

Oscar Hijuelos (1951-2013), a native New Yorker and the son of Cuban immigrants, was a Pulitzer Prize winning author of nine novels and a memoir and a recipient of the Rome Prize awarded by The American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He became the first Latino winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1990 for his international bestseller The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love and his novels have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Mary Gordon is the author of nine novels, including Final Payments, The Love of My Youth, Pearl, and There Your Heart Lies; six works of nonfiction, including the memoirs Circling My Mother and The Shadow Man; and three collections of short fiction, including The Stories of Mary Gordon, which was awarded the Story Prize. She taught at Barnard College and lives in New York City.

Learn more about this author

Contributors

Formats and Prices

Price

Price

Format

Format:

Also available from:

Description

Genre:

Praise

Details

You May Also Like

Newsletter Signup

Oscar Hijuelos

About the Author