How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents - Hardcover

Alvarez, Julia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0945575572 ISBN 13: 9780945575573

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 1991

Synopsis

The Garcías—Dr. Carlos (Papi), his wife Laura (Mami), and their four daughters, Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía—belong to the uppermost echelon of Spanish Caribbean society, descended from the conquistadores. Their family compound adjoins the palacio of the dictator’s daughter. So when Dr. García’s part in a coup attempt is discovered, the family must flee.

They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their existence in the Dominican Republic. Papi has to find new patients in the Bronx. Mami, far from the compound and the family retainers, must find herself. Meanwhile, the girls try to lose themselves—by forgetting their Spanish, by straightening their hair and wearing fringed bell bottoms. For them, it is at once liberating and excruciating being caught between the old world and the new, trying to live up to their father’s version of honor while accommodating the expectations of their American boyfriends. Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez’s brilliant and buoyant first novel sets the García girls free to tell their most intimate stories about how they came to be at home—and not at home—in America.

About this title

Review:

‘Compelling ... a classic tale of immigration ... warm and honest’ -- Elle

‘She has beautifully captured the threshold experience of the new immigrant’ -- New York Times Book Review

‘Simply wonderful writing, and there’s a good deal of it in this debut novel by a lively and gifted author’ -- Los Angeles Times

About the Author:

Julia Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to the United States in 1960. How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents received the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, was listed by Americas magazine as 1993's #1 bestseller in Latin America, and was named by both the ALA and the New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of 1991. Her second novel, In The Time Of The Butterflies, was nominated for the 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other works include !Yo!, Something To Declare and In The Name Of Salome. She is also the author of children's and young adult books and poetry collections. She lives in Vermont and in the Dominican Republic, where she and her husband have a sustainable coffee farm and literacy centre.

About this edition

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0945575572
• ISBN 13: 9780945575573
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1