My Broken Language

A Memoir

De: Quiara Alegría Hudes

Narrado por: Quiara Alegría Hudes

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights tells her lyrical story of coming of age against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, with her sprawling Puerto Rican family as a collective muse.

“Quiara Alegría Hudes is in her own league. Her sentences will take your breath away. How lucky we are to have her telling our stories.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning creator of Hamilton and In the Heights

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, New York Public Library, BookPage, BookRiot

Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her mother and aunts and cousins, but haunted by the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio—even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a gathering circle of powerful orisha-like women with tragic real-world wounds, and she vowed to tell their stories—but first she’d have to get off the stairs and join the dance. She’d have to find her language.

Weaving together Hudes’s love of music with the songs of her family, the lessons of North Philly with those of Yale, this is a multimythic dive into home, memory, and belonging—narrated by an obsessed girl who fought to become an artist so she could capture the world she loved in all its wild and delicate beauty.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL

Reseñas de la Crítica

“My Broken Language is such a flawless demonstration of . . . strife with linguistic inheritance that it nearly broke me. In the moments after I finished reading, first came the aphasia of wonder at a book that exceeds you; and then, swiftly crowding out the silence, the cresting roar of my own Afro-Caribbean ancestors shouting Ogún Balenyó in unison.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Quiara Alegría Hudes is a bona fide storyteller about the people she loves—especially the women in her family who cook, talk, light candles, and conjure the spirits. Enormously empathetic and funny, My Broken Language is rich with unflinching observations that bring us in close, close, without cloaking the details. The language throughout is gorgeous and so moving. I love this book.”—Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana

“Every line of this book is poetry. From North Philly to all of us, Hudes showers us with aché, teaching us what it looks like to find languages of survival in a country with a ‘panoply of invisibilities.’ Hudes paints unforgettable moments on every page for mothers and daughters and all spiritually curious and existential human beings. This story is about Latinas. But it is also about all of us.”—Maria Hinojosa, Emmy Award–winning journalist and author of Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

“Wise, graceful, and devastatingly beautiful, Hudes’s memoir gives voice to the complicated cultural collisions and gentle rebellions that seed a life. I was inspired and moved by the resilient spirit of Hudes and the Perez women, who through joy and great heartbreak manage to conjure a remarkable world in and beyond their Philly barrio.”—Lynn Nottage, two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright

“Joyful, righteous, indignant, self-assured, exuberant: These are all words that could describe Quiara Alegría Hudes’s My Broken Language. The celebrated playwright calls her language broken, but in this extraordinary memoir she actually remakes language so that it speaks to her world. . . . Hudes’s first name is an invented endearment, a form of the verb querer, which means “to love.” . . . There may be no better compliment to the author of this marvelous, one-of-a-kind memoir than to say she truly lives up to her name. With My Broken Language, she has invented a language of love and to-the-bone happiness to tell stories only a Perez woman could share.”—BookPage (starred review)

dazzling!thanks

One of the best memoir of the year!!
I enjoyed the way she speak about illness and Identity.
An incredible storytelling. She explained how are the Latino family backgrounds. I felt empathy with those women!!
Que viva changò!!

Started out good

I liked the first third. I didn’t care for the animal parts. (After you listen, you’ll know what I mean.)

Such a beautiful personal story

One of the best audiobooks I’ve read. So often authors don’t read their own books, but I am so glad Quiara read hers.
I don’t really have the language to explain how deeply touching this book is. Her experience is not mine, and yet where our life experience intersects, I can appreciate her struggles and triumphs.
It’s obvious why the Free Library chose this book. It’s a love letter to its sanctuary.

felt like a part of the fam

Thank you for listening to your mother. This book is the closest to the boriqua culture some will get. thanks for the awesome read as the words made melodic music known as a story. boy don't everyone have em. anyhow, you fused your ivy league and street education well to capture things a classroom or a calle couldn't teach. Job well done. You gave history. life. culture. birth to your story

Very relatable

loved it, made me think of my own Puerto Rican family. The dinners and get together

thank you

I laughed and cried in equal measure. you brought me back to my abuela in all her glory and my heart sings. thank you for your bravery.

I loved every word

This book is a must read! It’s has just enough history to keep you interested. The world between american and Puerto Rico life style is very well explained. Quinara reading this book feels right and comforting. More Please

Amazing Book

I absolutely loved this books so informal a and detailed. You can literally vision all the sceens and feel the way she feels. I Sturglle with adhd so audio books are my go to for reading. This book though it was long didn't feel boring the way the reader reads it is so real and every voice is perfectly how I would think they would sound.

Rhythmic & Liberating

As a woman of color, I truly connected with the stories and reflections. The storytelling was rhythmic. It made me fall in love with the dance and song shared. I laughed, cried and connected to the writer. I will be mourning the end of the story! Quiara is an absolute wordsmith con un poder especial para componer palabras! Totally recommend!

My Broken Language

Wow, just Wow! I listened to my broken language, laughed, cried, celebrated, and raged her accomplishments, insights, experiences, and hurts that only made her stronger. Now I’m off to read it so I can absorb the words in print. Thank you Quiara for making my world a little bit richer, a little more beautiful, and a little more empathetic.