Family Lore
-
- $25.99
Publisher Description
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
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A family gathering promises to expose a few secrets in this tender intergenerational tale full of strong women and magic. Flor Marte, the second of four Dominican-American sisters, has planned a wake for herself—even though she’s very much alive. This puts her sisters on edge, especially because Flor has the power to see the day that someone will die. This leaves her family curious about the upcoming event, to say the least. The following narrative moves back and forth in time and place, from the sisters’ New York adulthood to their childhood in Santo Domingo. Through three captivating and distinct narrators (including the author, Elizabeth Acevedo), we loved learning about the magic that makes up each woman’s life. In the three days that lead up to the wake, we also get to meet a collection of endearing and quirky aunts, mothers, and cousins, all bound by the same love and loyalty. The triumphs and disappointments of family ties ring true in this engaging listen.
