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The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina…
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The Book of Unknown Americans (original 2014; edition 2015)

by Cristina Henríquez

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,3847613,443 (3.86)129
Young Adult Literatur HTML:??A triumph of storytelling. Henríquez pulls us into the lives of her characters with such mastery that we hang on to them just as fiercely as they hang on to 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
 
A boy and a girl who fall in love. Two families whose hopes collide with destiny. An extraordinary novel that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American.

Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible injury, one that casts doubt on whether she??ll ever be the same. And so, leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel can get better.

When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar Tree store, it is love at first sight. It??s also the beginning of a friendship between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt and love and responsibility is at this novel??s core.

Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America. Their journeys and their voices will inspire you, surprise you, and break your heart.

Suspenseful, wry and immediate, rich in spirit and humanity, The Book of Unknown Americans is a work of rare force and originality.

Read by Yareli Arizmendi, Christine Avila, Jesse Corti, Gustavo Res, Ozzie Rodriguez, a
… (more)
Member:molugum
Title:The Book of Unknown Americans
Authors:Cristina Henríquez
Info:Vintage (2015), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 304 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:*****
Tags:None

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The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez (2014)

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» See also 129 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 75 (next | show all)
Super quick to read! I settled on 3 stars but it's probably more of a 3.5

This was a really nice story about the Latino immigrant community in Delaware with special focus one one family who has a child with traumatic brain injury.

This is the second book I've read recently about the immigrant experience and it is truly eye opening to see the struggles the face and the back stories that go with these people who so often are just nameless background pieces in our everyday lives.

( )
  hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |
This was so good! I love the writing style; there are so many amazing sentences I had to enjoy it. And it felt very real. I was very invested in it. ( )
  Dances_with_Words | Jan 6, 2024 |
Right in the feels.

Beautifully written. ( )
  untitled841 | Jul 3, 2023 |
A bit too sentimental for me, but it looks like it's been good for other people and resonated with them. If this helps people to humanize each other, I'm all for it, I just don't love the narrative style. I wish the part-3 narrations were a little more fleshed out and integrated into the story, and I think by trying to be a lot of things at once it failed to really stand out in any of them. I hate to give a bad rating to something earnest and well-meant, it's just not quite for me. ( )
  Kiramke | Jun 27, 2023 |
3.5*

I would have probably given this 4* except for the fact that I disliked the final section. It wasn't the death of Arturo so much as the way Mayor and Alma responded to it that I didn't care for.

I did like the use of different narrators for the various points of view. ( )
  leslie.98 | Jun 27, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 75 (next | show all)
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Epigraph
Let us all be from somewhere.
/ Let us tell each other everything we can. - Bob Hicok, "A Primer"
Dedication
For my father, Pantaleón Henríquez III
First words
Back then, all we wanted was the simplest things: to eat good food, to sleep at night, to smile, to laugh, to be well.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Young Adult Literatur HTML:??A triumph of storytelling. Henríquez pulls us into the lives of her characters with such mastery that we hang on to them just as fiercely as they hang on to 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
 
A boy and a girl who fall in love. Two families whose hopes collide with destiny. An extraordinary novel that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American.

Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible injury, one that casts doubt on whether she??ll ever be the same. And so, leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel can get better.

When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar Tree store, it is love at first sight. It??s also the beginning of a friendship between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt and love and responsibility is at this novel??s core.

Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America. Their journeys and their voices will inspire you, surprise you, and break your heart.

Suspenseful, wry and immediate, rich in spirit and humanity, The Book of Unknown Americans is a work of rare force and originality.

Read by Yareli Arizmendi, Christine Avila, Jesse Corti, Gustavo Res, Ozzie Rodriguez, a

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