Details:
- author: Julia Alvarez
- full title: The Cemetery of Untold Stories
- narrator: Alma Cuervo
- genre: general fiction, literary fiction
- topics: #books, #stories, #DominicanRepublic, #magicalrealism
- publisher: Recorded Books
- publish date: 02 Apr 2024
- timing: 8:56:00
My Rating of the Audiobook:
- content: 💙💙💙.5
- narration: 💙💙💙💙💙
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| Goodreads |
Excerpt from the Book:
Alma once had a friend, a writer, who for years before she died, relatively young, was always talking about this one story she had to write down.
Over the course of their thirty-plus-year friendship, Alma’s friend became quite famous, winning major prizes, garnering important interviews, awards left and right. A TV movie based on one of her novels was in the works with well-known names even Alma, not a big Hollywood person, had heard of. And yet her friend dismissed these achievements as “incidentals.” The real deal was this one story that would not be hurried.
The story possessed her. She could reel off its characters, complete with their names and histories. Periodically, they compelled her to go to one or another part of the world: a gravesite in Sweden, a fishing village in Liberia, the outer islands off South Carolina where she bought a house and lived for a spell. These characters had secrets she was listening for, and the reception was better in some places than others; their voices would break through, until she’d lose the connection and it was time to move on to some other place.
My Thoughts:
A renowned writer, Alma, moves to the Dominican Republic, where she originally comes from, and decides to make a cemetery of unfinished stories in her backyard. An interesting idea. Filomena is a local woman with no friends and (supposedly, no) relatives. Alma employs her to help around the house. In the cemetery, she listens to Alma’s stories. The novel weaves together multiple stories, including those of Filomena and Perla, writer Alma and her sisters, as well as Alma’s unpublished stories.
Multiple stories and POVs may confuse the reader, so it’s better to read/listen to this in fewer parts. I loved the magical realism idea. I know the stories are unfinished, but still, I’m not sure if I missed a few bits of Tatica’s story in the end. Because I would like to know more.
This was my first novel by this author. Julia Alvarez is no doubt a very talented storyteller. The narration by Alma Cuervo is excellent, with authentic pronunciation of Spanish phrases.
About the Author:
Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.
