A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
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Shortlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction
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"Through a novel with so much depth, beauty, and grace, we, like Ana,
are forever changed." --Jacqueline Woodson, Vanity Fair
"Gorgeous writing, gorgeous story." **--Sandra Cisneros
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Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America, the way
the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when
Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to
say yes. It doesn't matter that he is twice her age, that there is no
love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire
close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year's Day, 1965,
Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife
confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and
miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus
terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan's free-spirited younger brother,
who convinces her to stay.
As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to
protect his family's assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana.
Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on
the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go
dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of
life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between
her heart and her duty to her family.
In bright, musical prose that reflects the energy of New York City,
Angie Cruz's Dominicana is a vital portrait of the immigrant
experience and the timeless coming-of-age story of a young woman finding
her voice in the world.
