The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez

Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible injury, one that casts doubt on whether she’ll ever be the same. And so, leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel can get better.

When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar Tree store, it is love at first sight. It’s also the beginning of a friendship between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt and love and responsibility is at this novel’s core.

Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America. Their journeys and their voices will inspire you, surprise you, and break your heart.

Suspenseful, wry and immediate, rich in spirit and humanity, The Book of Unknown Americans is a work of rare force and originality that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be an American.

285 pages (June 2014)

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Title Read-alikes: Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok; How Are You Going to Save Yourself by J. M. Holmes; We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh; Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende; Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng; Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan; The Lemon Orchard by Luanne Rice; The Leavers by Lisa Ko; Afterlife by Julia Alvarez; I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez; The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett; Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi; and The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio.