The Things We Didn't Know
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4.2 • 30 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
The USA TODAY bestselling inaugural winner of Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us contest, Elba Iris Pérez’s lyrical and “wonderfully compelling” (Judith Simon Prager, author of What the Dolphin Said) cross-cultural coming-of-age debut novel explores a young girl’s childhood between 1950s Puerto Rico and a small Massachusetts factory town.
Andrea Rodríguez is nine years old when her mother whisks her and her brother, Pablo, away from Woronoco, the tiny Massachusetts factory town that is the only home they’ve known. With no plan and no money, she leaves them with family in the mountainside villages of Puerto Rico and promises to return.
Months later, when Andrea and Pablo are brought back to Massachusetts, they find their hometown significantly changed. As they navigate the rifts between their family’s values and all-American culture and face the harsh realities of growing up, they must embrace both the triumphs and heartache that mark the journey to adulthood.
A heartfelt, evocative portrait that “breathes with narrative magic” (Harry Youtt, poet and author of I’m Never Not Thinking of You), The Things We Didn’t Know establishes Elba Iris Pérez as a sensational new literary voice.
Customer Reviews
Interesting
It was an interesting book, moving the reader from U.S. to Puerto Rico and back a few times. Learned a little Puerto Rican culture and about families that came over in the 50’s, 60’s, etc.
The things we didn't know
I enjoyed reading the book very much, My parents moved from PR to NYC in the 1950's and I remember as a child hearing my mom and aunts talking and reminiscing about the island , the culture and traditions. I now am a resident of Western Massachusetts, and know the cities and places the author mentions in her book. I definitely can relate to many of the things she writes .Good read!
Great book
Loved everything about this book. Felt like i was there with them.