Julia Alvarez’sHow the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accentsmeets Cormac McCarthy’sThe Road

Your granddaughters are lost, Candelaria. Bianca, the brainy archaeologist, had to forfeit her life’s work in Guatemala after her advisor seduced and deserted her. Paola, missing for over a decade, resurfaces in Boston as a brainwashed wellness cultist named Zoe. And Candy, the youngest, is a recovering addict who finds herself pregnant by a man she’s not even sure ever existed. None of this concerns you of course, until a cataclysmic earthquake hits Boston. Now you must traverse the crumbling city to reach the Watertown Mall Old Country Buffet–for a reason you still cannot disclose–battling strange entities and your own strange past to save your granddaughters and possibly the world.

Author ofDreaming of YouMelissa Lozada-Oliva delivers an unsettling, raucous debut novel written with tongue-in-cheek humor and sharp cultural criticism that unearths one troubled family’s legacy, feasting on diasporic identity politics and examining the limits of bodily autonomy and the dangers of wanting to belong at any cost.

A sweeping, mystical novel following three generations of women as they grapple with muddled pasts and predetermined futures,Candelariais a story of love that eats us alive.

Melissa Lozada-Oliva is the child of Guatemalan and Colombian immigrants and the author ofDreaming of Youandpeluda. Her work has been featured in NPR,Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, PAPER, Armani Beauty, and more. She is a member of the band Meli and the Specs. She holds an MFA in poetry from NYU and lives in New York City.

• Publisher:Astra House (September 19, 2023)
• Language:English
• Hardcover:320 pages
• ISBN-10:1662601808
• ISBN-13:9781662601804
• Item Weight:1.05 pounds
• Dimensions:6.25 x 1.06 x 9.25 inches