My Train Leaves at Three
by Natalie Guerrero
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By a striking new voice in fiction, an electric coming-of-age novel that explores grief, family, sexuality, and love as an ambitious young woman from Washington Heights tries to make it on Broadway
"Guerrero leaves the reader not just enthralled and delighted but waiting with bated breath for what she will conjure up next."--Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last
After her sister Nena's sudden death, Xiomara, an Afro-Latina singer and actress born and raised in Washington Heights, is numb. With her sister gone, Xiomara, painfully close to thirty, is living in a tiny apartment with her ultra-Catholic Puerto Rican mother, and having the same shitty sex with the same shitty men that she's been entertaining for years. Behind on rent despite two minimum-wage jobs, one of which involves singing show tunes while serving pancakes to tourists at Ellen's Stardust Diner, Xiomara is bitingly cynical, especially in her grief, and barely treading water.
But when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity falls into her lap--the chance to audition for Manny Santos, the most charismatic director of the moment--Xiomara sees a second chance to pursue the dream she thought she'd lost. Meanwhile, something about Santi, a new co-worker at the print shop where she spends half of her days photocopying other performers' headshots, starts to tug at the threads of her apathy. Nothing is simple, and soon Xiomara finds herself interacting with the ugliest sides of the industry and the powerful men who control it. Sometimes the closer you are to your dreams, the further away you become from yourself, and as Xiomara grapples with this hard truth, she is forced to ask herself if she has what it takes to build a new shiny life without losing the truth of her old one.
With hopeful spirit and unapologetic energy, My Train Leaves at Three is a coming-of-age story about the balancing act between moving on and moving forward.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9780593977330
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Authors
- Natalie Guerrero
- Publisher
- One World
- Published Date
- July 15, 2025
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 256
- Physical Info
- 9.53 in L x 6.34 in W (0.94 lb)
Can't wait to read more from this author! This book felt like a slice of home. The descriptions of New York felt so real and true. I could see all of the characters and places as if I were there myself. I LOVED that Natalie showed a complicated, chaotic, and sensitive Dominican woman. I saw myself in the main character's best and worst facets: trying to run away from myself, but ending up back where I started.I loved how dark the storyline became. You can feel Xiomara's heartbreak and pain on every page. As a writer myself, I sometimes struggle writing about the uglier parts of life. Natalie did it masterfully, showing us exactly how bad it can get, then providing relief in the moments we (the reader and the characters) needed it most. I wanted Xiomara to have a happy ending so badly, which is a testament to the writing. As chaotic as she was, I still cared about her deeply. In some ways, it was a reminder to myself not to lose hope in the darkest of times.
A beautiful debut novel. Funny and heart wrenching at times. There are so many parts of this coming of age story that will resonate with people -- moving on after loss, figuring out your boundaries with friends and romantic partners, allowing yourself to find joy in things you didn't expect, pivoting careers, and for fellow actors, not defining your self worth based on if you're booking acting jobs. Auditioning is SO brutal and Natalie Guerrero did a phenomenal job depicting just how much it can rip someone's sense of self apart. I'll be thinking about this story for a long time. Very glad to have read it.
I thank the author for changing my life for reading something so relatable and enduring in the Latine community! Muchas gracias por decir mejorar la raza. It’s all I heard in my childhood.
409. That’s how many highlights I have in this book. The book is 247 pages so…do with that what you will. There were entire pages that were highlighted and I didn’t care. I read the first chapter TWICE. This is in my opinion—a masterpiece. To say that Natalie writes beautifully feels like an understatement. An injustice of some kind. I could see, taste, smell, hear, and feel what felt like every sentence in this book. I knew the characters. They were my primas, my tias, my Abuela.Xiomara was such a beautifully broken character. The lows scraped at the bottom of your heart, leaving you wincing and holding your breath…but the highs felt like medicine, leaving me with tears in my eyes.I can’t believe this is a debut novel and honestly, the literary world for me now feels like life before Natalie Guerrero and life after Natalie Guerrero. Give me everything you write. I’m a fan.
Following the death of her sister Xiomara finds herself lost and shuffling through life trying to figure out what to do if she doesn’t follow her dream in music. When a potential new musical opportunity presents itself Xiomara has to ask herself what she wants and how to navigate that reality. We follow Xiomara during the hustle that surrounds auditioning and the less than savory side of the world she’s desperate to get into.This book is so New York. I loved following Xiomara during her day-to-day trying to juggle work (a copy store and a singing diner), dating (hello Santi…good bye Manny), and reconciling what it means to live after losing her sister. I loved the way the story shifted and found myself cheering for Xiomara as she found the path she was meant to be on.
