The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez

THE CEMETERY OF UNTOLD STORIES is the latest from Julia Alvarez (In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents). Alvarez focuses on four sisters, particularly Alma, the second eldest and a writer. She decides to retire and to bury her untold stories in some land she inherits in the Dominican Republic.  A sculpture friend works with her to install statues and a local caretaker, named Filomena, is hired. With a touch of magical realism surprising stories are shared. They build on themes of family, secrets, and prejudice and seem to link the local caretaker, Alma’s father, and the ex-wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo, named Bienvenida. THE CEMETERY OF UNTOLD STORIES received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus (“a rich and moving saga of Dominican history emerges, embodied in the lives of irresistible characters”). The audiobook (from Recorded Books) lasts almost nine hours and is narrated by Alma Cuervo who also contributed to readings of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, plus Alvarez’s Afterlife and multiple titles written by Isabel Allende and Robert Jackson Bennett.

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

HOW NOT TO DROWN IN A GLASS OF WATER by Angie Cruz is a fairly unique reading experience. The story (set in 2009 in New York City) is told almost as a stream of consciousness from Cara Romero, a fifty-something immigrant from the Dominican Republic. She has lost her job at a factory and meets for twelve sessions with an employment counselor for Seniors so that she can collect benefits and hopefully find another position. As observers of her one-sided interviews, readers learn about her family, including sister Angela and estranged son Fernando, about her neighbors, including la Vieja Caridad (an older woman who needs her help) and her friends like Lulu. There are numerous Spanish (or Spanglish) phrases which the reader has to interpret from context, but that experience adds to the sense of isolation and marginalization which Cara must feel in an environment where she is not a native speaker. Increasingly in need of money for rent, Cora considers work as a nanny, caregiver, school security guard and more. Her responses to the bureaucratic forms are instructive about her perspective, if cringe-worthy at times. Cruz has creatively and sensitively crafted a story involving poverty and gentrification, family ties and survival.