Afterlife
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the internationally bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents comes “a stunning work of art that reminds readers Alvarez is, and always has been, in a class of her own.” (Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller The Poet X)
Don't miss Alvarez’s new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, available now!
Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.
Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including—maybe especially—members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?
A Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020
A Most-Anticipated Book of the Year: O, The Oprah Magazine * The New York Times * The Washington Post *Vogue * Bustle * BuzzFeed * Ms. magazine * The Millions * Huffington Post * PopSugar * The Lily * Goodreads * Library Journal * LitHub * Electric Literature
Customer Reviews
Amazing Prose. Would have preferred a different ending.
Great reading up until the end. I think I was spoiled by all other Julia’s novels and expected a more powerful ending . Just like in her other novels, I did not want Afterlife to end so I could keep reading and enjoying on and on, but unlike her other novels, where when the end arrived, it completly filled me with joy, and I started the novel all over again just to arrive to the masterful ending, In Afterlife I did not experience that. The ending did not make me start the reading all over so I could experience the climax again. I did go back and read several passages again to experience the awe of a great writer, a great story, and an amazing use of words that Julia Alvarez does better than any of her contemporary writers.