NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK!
Winner of the NAACP Image Award, Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction
Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
From National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo comes the story of one Dominican American family told through the voices of its women
Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake—a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she's led—her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else's? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.
But Flor isn't the only person with secrets: her sisters are hiding things, too. And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own.
Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo's inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces—one family's journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.
A Best Book of 2023 from: Washington Post * Good Housekeeping * Real Simple * Harper's Bazaar * Elle * Time * NPR
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK!
Winner of the NAACP Image Award, Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction
Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
From National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo comes the story of one Dominican American family told through the voices of its women
Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake—a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she's led—her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else's? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.
But Flor isn't the only person with secrets: her sisters are hiding things, too. And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own.
Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo's inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces—one family's journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.
A Best Book of 2023 from: Washington Post * Good Housekeeping * Real Simple * Harper's Bazaar * Elle * Time * NPR
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June 26, 2023
The colorful adult debut from Acevedo (The Poet X) explores the bonds connecting the women of a Dominican family in New York City, some of whom have magical powers. Flor Marte, the clairvoyant second-born sister, whose dreams tell her when others are about to die, begins planning her own wake, while her older sister, Matilde, a brilliant dancer unhappily married to the unfaithful Rafa, nurses an attraction to her instructor’s son. Their widowed younger sister, Pastora, knows about Rafa’s infidelity and Matilde’s crush on a younger man because she has a magical ability to perceive people’s secrets; her interference in Matilde’s life has dire consequences. Flor’s daughter, Ona, who narrates, claims she can regulate her menstrual cycle (“your popola has magic?” asks her aunt Camila, the youngest of the four). There’s also Pastora’s daughter, Yadi, whose old beau has just been released from prison while she prepares the food for Flor’s wake. Though the various magical elements aren’t very well developed, Acevedo is brilliant at portraying the women’s love and loyalty for one another. The author’s fans will eat this up. -
Three narrators portray the viewpoints of a family of uncommon women who are leading full, magical lives. Author Elizabeth Acevedo narrates the majority of the novel; her poignant turns of phrase and delivery in both English and Spanish provide a musical listening experience. She takes a more neutral stance when expressing the words of Ona, who is interviewing her aunties for her anthropological research. Sixta Morel portrays the four sisters' passions and gifts, ranging from rhythmic Matilde's dancing to Flor's uncanny ability to sense impending death. Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe is memorable in her portrait of youthful Yadi. Acevedo's first book for adults will likely land solidly with her intended audience. S.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
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January 1, 2024
National Book Award--winning YA author Acevedo (Clap When You Land) narrates most of her adult fiction debut with bilingual fluency and mellifluous rhythms; she's briefly joined by Sixta Morel and Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe, who perform five brief interludes. Character by memorable character, Acevedo unfolds the intertwined lives of a Dominican American family, about to gather for the wake of one of their own. Flor, the second Marte sister, who can see death before it arrives, insists there's no reason for urgency. She's just been inspired by a documentary about a living wake and wants to plan her own. Leading up to the magnificent event, Acevedo unspools glimpses into three generations: coldly controlling Mam�; kindly oldest sister Matilde; her philandering husband Rafa; truth-knowing third sister Pastora; privileged youngest sister Camila; and Pastora's daughter Yadi, who is considering her newly returned first love. Flor's daughter Ona--the only Marte to whom Acevedo grants first-person narration--serves as the family's anthropologist. That Ona's interviews with each of the four sisters (liltingly enlivened by Morel) and cousin Yadi (Rodriguez del Orbe's single, resolute reading) are not voiced by Acevedo cleverly bestows these women with agency over their stories. VERDICT Acevedo's choice to self-narrate her novel further amplifies her already remarkable voice.--Terry Hong
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
