The
Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
Review
by M (adult fiction)
The
novel puts ‘parents doing their best for their children’ at its heart. The main plot follows the Rivera family who leave
a life that they love in Mexico in order for their teen daughter, Maribel, to
attend a special needs school in the USA. They arrive in Delaware to find that
their new home is in a bare grey apartment building in the middle of nowhere.
From here on, the
novel really is The Book of Unknown Americans and it follows this premise in both
its narrative structure and in its plot. While the plot of the Rivera family
(how they came to be here and how they get on) brings flow to the novel, it’s
the apartment building residents and a tragically bittersweet coming-of-age tale that really bring
the novel to life.
The
chapters are narrated by different characters, and all of them are people who are
South American immigrants residing in the same block as the Riveras. Some of
these chapters add to the development of the main plot but a few of them are an
aside, where the character simply tells us how they came to live here – and their
stories are all so different yet so similar too. In this way, a varied and moving
picture of immigration is created. Mixed in with all the poverty and sorrows,
there is a lot of joy, and hope, and life.
The
UK cover (pictured here) fittingly combines the tone, hue and themes of the
novel: a variety of South American people with their hopes, dreams, stories and
labours holding up America. This is the statue of liberty as we don’t usually
see it, with its added textured colours giving life to what is often just a
grey structure.
Publication
details: 5 June 2014, Canongate, Edinburgh, trade paperback
This
copy: for review from the publisher
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