The Cemetery of Untold Stories
by Julia Alvarez
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Literary icon and great American novelist Julia Alvarez, bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the Garca Girls Lost Their Accents, returns with a luminescent novel about storytelling that reads like an instant classic.
"Only an alchemist as wise and sure as Alvarez could swirl the elements of folklore and the flavor of magical realism around her modern prose and make it all sing . . . Lively, joyous . . . often witty, occasionally somber and elegiac." --Luis Alberto Urrea, The New York Times Book Review
"Engaging and written in a playful, crystal-clear prose, this novel explores friendship, love, sisterhood, living between cultures, and how people can be haunted by the things they don't finish . . . Entertaining . . . Heartwarming." --Gabino Iglesias, The Boston Globe
**Named a Most Anticipated Book by the New York Times, Washington Post, Today.com, Goodreads, B&N Reads, Literary Hub, HipLatina, BookPage, BBC.com, Zibby Mag, and more**
Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn't want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories--literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.
Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas and soon begin to defy their author: they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener to the secret tales unspooled by Alma's characters. Among them, Bienvenida, dictator Rafael Trujillo's abandoned wife who was erased from the official history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States.
The Cemetery of Untold Stories asks: Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Finally, Alma finds the meaning she and her characters yearn for in the everlasting vitality of stories. Julia Alvarez reminds us that the stories of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9781643753843
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Authors
- Julia Alvarez
- Publisher
- Algonquin Books
- Published Date
- April 2, 2024
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 256
- Physical Info
- 1 in H x 9.1 in L x 6.2 in W (0.9 lb)
The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez is absolutely fantastic and easily my favorite book of hers so far. Unlike her more fragmented works, this novel feels cohesive, it has a beginning, middle, and end, with characters who not only interact, but whose dialogue builds connections that carry through the entire story enter woven into one another. Though Alvarez still uses her signature jump-around style, here it works. The conversations between the “untold stories” give the book its heart, and Filomena, the chosen listener, anchors everything with her steady presence.“The road to some people’s hearts only go in one direction…”At the center is Alma, who starts and leaves behind a cemetery for untold stories so that others may continue to add their voices even after her death. It is chilling and beautiful, especially as the stories begin to converse with one another in the cemetery, proof that memory and a story will live on. This is also Alvarez at her most political, weaving in commentary about “el jefe” that chillingly echoes the corruption of the current leader in America. The way democracy and justice are framed as fragile, and at risk of being devoured by men who rule or act without regard for human souls, makes the stories feel timely and urgent.“The truth is, people are capable of anything. Don’t all the stories Filomena has heard in the campo, the barrio, and now in this cemetery confirm that?”Still, Alvarez doesn’t shy away from showing the deep wounds of colorism and the way beauty is framed within Latin America. Those elements were painful, because instead of celebrating beauty in all shades, the text highlighted the degradation, reflecting a history that still hurts to this day. Yet the novel’s strength is in how it ties the past, present, and future in a linear path. Unlike some of her other books where reverse chronology left me confused, here the storytelling is clear, forward-moving, and immersive.“What stories did mama tell herself to survive?..”The trauma that is in this thing we call life, and with an inspiring take you get to see the gamut of the spectrum of human experience from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. The result is a book that is lyrical, haunting, and deeply moving. The cemetery of untold stories is a metaphor that lingers, asking us who will carry our stories forward, what stories do we have living within us still begging to be told, and who will be the chosen listener.
This book has a slow start but hang in there. It's worth it. Very creative and thought provoking.
Enjoyed the book! Julia Alvarez tells a good story, bringing in the culture and history of the Dominican Republic (DR) and the experiences of those who have immigrated to the US. If you haven't read her earlier work, especially, "In the Time of the Butterflies", loosely based on life during the Trujillo dictatorship in the DR - I encourage you to pick up a copy.
Will remain one of my favorite books forever. An exceptional story, exceptionally well written and very moving. I have given it to many friends who have also loved it.
There were so many things I loved about this book. I really got swept up in all the stories. However, some were very confusing trying to figure out who was “speaking” and who was “listening”.Side note: There are so many Spanish words and phrases that my kindle could not translate, and I couldn’t find translations for on the internet.Also, the verbal and physical abuse and endless mistresses by the husbands was pretty upsetting to me.
