Tuesday Intro

It’s time for, First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros. If you aren’t familiar, Vicki, from I’d Rather Be at the Beach hosts this meme. It’s your chance to post a bit from a book that you are reading or planning to read. Today I’m posting about a book I started last week which I’m really enjoying.

“Back then, all we wanted was the simplest things: to eat good food, to sleep at night, to smile, to laugh, to be well. We felt it was our right, as much as it was anyone’s, to have those things. Of course, when I think about it now, I see that I was naive. I was blinded by the swell of hope and the promise of possibility. I assumed that everything that would go wrong in our lives already had. 

Thirty hours after crossing the border, we arrived, the three of us in the backseat of a red pickup truck that smelled of cigarette smoke and gasoline.” 

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez.

What do you think? Would you keep on reading? I know heard a lot about this book when it first came out but not sure what took me so long to get to it but I’ve started it and I’m loving it.

Here’s a bit more about the book from Booklist: On a cold, bewildering night, the Riveras, who have just left their happy lives in Mexico, are dropped off at a dilapidated apartment building on the western edge of Delaware. Arturo has given up his thriving construction company to labor in a dark, grimy indoor mushroom farm, while his wife, Alma, lonely and afraid, with no English and little money, worries incessantly about their beautiful 15-year-old daughter, Maribel. She has suffered a traumatic brain injury, and her parents have sacrificed everything to send her to a special school.

Their building turns out to be a sanctuary for Central and Latin American immigrants, and as the Riveras’ dramatic tale unfolds, Henríquez brings their generous neighbors forward to tell the compelling stories of why and how they left Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Paraguay.

Let me know if you’ve read this book and/or if you will be adding this to your list.