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
The first adult novel in almost fifteen years by the internationally
bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the
García Girls Lost Their Accents
"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
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?
