The Book of Unknown Americans

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 Kirkwood, 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 Henriquez gives voice to the stories of the displaced and unknown - the untold stories of our time that resonate for us all.

About the Author :
Cristina Henr.quez 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.

Review :
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 Timely . . . powerful . . . genuinely moving . . . Henríquez's myriad gifts as a writer shine 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 Throughout, the book is lit by sharp observations . . . and warmed by Henríquez's obvious affection for her characters A quiet, unassuming novel that ravels slowly, quickens without warning, spins into high drama and leaves you in thrall to its vivid characters and its author's sure hand . . . a deeply stirring story Timely . . . It is Maribel and Mayor's star-crossed love that lends this novel an emotional urgency, and it's the story of their families that gives us a visceral sense of the magnetic allure of America, and the gaps so many immigrants find here between expectations and reality . . . genuinely moving Henríquez's powerful novel captures readers with the quiet beauty of her characters and their profoundly rendered experiences as immigrants in America. Following nine families who arrived in the States from South and Central America, Henríquez has crafted a novel that is inspiring, tragic, brave, and unforgettable A sweeping and ambitious work, with the point of view shifting among a dozen different characters The Chicago writer's highly anticipated novel tells the love story of a Pananamian boy and Mexican girl-the latter of whom suffers a near-fatal accident-and the language, racial and cultural obstacles their families face in America Wonderful. If most novels, or at least most good ones, are songs, then The Book of Unknown Americans is a choir. In a multiplicity of voices, each one distinct and authentic, Cristina Henríquez tells a whole community of stories, and the book that emerges is warm, wise, and unfailingly generous. It never seems to strive for profundity or grasp at poignancy, and yet page by page, as naturally as can be, it rouses the conscience and touches the heart Here is an important story about family, community and identity, told with elegance and compassion. The Book of Unknown Americans is unforgettable A symphonic love story between these immigrants and an impossible America. Told in a multiplicity of voices, the novel manages that rare balance of being both unflinching and unsentimental. In doing so, it rewrites the definition of what it means to be American Some of the characters in The Book of Unknown Americans were born in the United States, others came as adults or were brought here from Central and South America. Their stories speak to us, involve us in their lives. They dream, meet challenges, and dare to live on hope. Sometimes they cry, but they also laugh, dance, make love. In this beautiful book, Cristina Henríquez introduces us to their vibrant lives, to heartbreaking choices, to the tender beginnings of love, and to the humanity in every individual. Unforgettable Spectacular . . . highly believable and poignant Distinctively compassionate and original - a moving portrait of people who often pass before our eyes under a veil of invisibility. Gorgeously woven of both hope and delusion, and of the many kinds of love, this is a novel in which characters' assimilations and aspirations are as much to a new country as to something even broader: to other, finer versions of themselves. As a reader I felt assimilated too, forever altered by the extraordinary world Henríquez creates Evoking a profound sense of hope, Henríquez delivers a moving account of those who will do anything to build a future for their children - even if it means confronting the fear and alienation lurking behind the American dream Ambitious . . . Henríquez allows the characters to speak for themselves Engaging, readable and poignant Everyone who comes to the United States brings a complicated story. Arturo and Alma Rivera have emigrated from Mexico to get their brain-injured teenage daughter, Mirabel, the help she needs. As the parents adapt to a new life, they watch warily as a young neighbor befriends Mirabel. Cristina Henríquez's new novel chronicles this budding romance with tenderness, making it seem that young love makes anything possible