My Train Leaves at Three

A Novel

De: Natalie Guerrero

Narrado por: Rae De Vine

By a striking new voice in fiction, an electric coming-of-age novel that explores grief, family, sexuality, and love as an ambitious young woman from Washington Heights tries to make it on Broadway

“Guerrero leaves the reader not just enthralled and delighted but waiting with bated breath for what she will conjure up next.”—Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last

After her sister Nena’s sudden death, Xiomara, an Afro-Latina singer and actress born and raised in Washington Heights, is numb. With her sister gone, Xiomara, painfully close to thirty, is living in a tiny apartment with her ultra-Catholic Puerto Rican mother, and having the same shitty sex with the same shitty men that she’s been entertaining for years. Behind on rent despite two minimum-wage jobs, one of which involves singing show tunes while serving pancakes to tourists at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, Xiomara is bitingly cynical, especially in her grief, and barely treading water.

But when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity falls into her lap—the chance to audition for Manny Santos, the most charismatic director of the moment—Xiomara sees a second chance to pursue the dream she thought she’d lost. Meanwhile, something about Santi, a new co-worker at the print shop where she spends half of her days photocopying other performers’ headshots, starts to tug at the threads of her apathy. Nothing is simple, and soon Xiomara finds herself interacting with the ugliest sides of the industry and the powerful men who control it. Sometimes the closer you are to your dreams, the further away you become from yourself, and as Xiomara grapples with this hard truth, she is forced to ask herself if she has what it takes to build a new shiny life without losing the truth of her old one.

With hopeful spirit and unapologetic energy, My Train Leaves at Three is a coming-of-age story about the balancing act between moving on and moving forward.

©2025 Natalie Guerrero (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Set in Washington Heights, My Train Leaves at Three follows Xiomara, an Afro-Latina singer and actress grieving the loss of her sister while struggling to stay afloat and pursue her dreams of Broadway. Dreams that feel increasingly difficult to achieve while staying true to herself in the face of a shallow industry. The novel explores grief and the challenge of balancing self-authenticity with the pressures of success.”—TODAY

“This quiet, beautiful book came to me recently, at a time when I was experimenting with my voice in new mediums. Guerrero’s story of transformation through solitude and movement reminded me that healing and change are not always loud. I see this reflected in characters who grow in silence, in the spaces in-­between. It officially comes out in July and is my number one recommendation . . . to pick up this summer!”—Mara Brock Akil for Vogue

“With My Train Leaves at Three Natalie Guerrero has entered the proverbial room, belted out her opening number and dropped the mic, leaving the reader not just enthralled and delighted with this debut . . . it contains [a] wondrous piece of magic: the city of New York. My heart sung with this stirring reminder that anything is possible in this wild city.”—Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last