Family Lore

A Novel

By: Elizabeth Acevedo

Narrated by: Elizabeth Acevedo, Sixta Morel, Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK!

Winner of the NAACP Image Award, Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction

Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

From National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo comes the story of one Dominican American family told through the voices of its women

Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake—a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she’s led—her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else’s? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.

But Flor isn’t the only person with secrets: her sisters are hiding things, too. And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own.

Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo’s inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces—one family’s journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.

A Best Book of 2023 from: Washington Post * Good Housekeeping * Real Simple * Harper's Bazaar * Elle * Time * NPR

Very confusing, especially as an Audiobook.

There are a lot of characters introduced quickly and elaborated on through the this novel and this became confusing, especially since the recording didn’t include the chapter titles to indicate who was narrating. I enjoyed the author’s writing style and the narrators all had excellent voices, but I spent too much time trying to figure out who was who and also thought the crude parts about the character with the “Alpha Vagina” cheapened the story. The other family powers were interesting and deep and this felt part felt forced for shock value or edginess. I would have stopped listening if this hadn’t been a book club selection, but I’m glad I pushed through and heard the ending in the author’s words and not just as a bookclub wrap up.

I feel

I feel so many things. I feel as though I got to know long lost family that I had been searching for. I feel as though I found myself in these pages. I found love, forgiveness, strength, & POWER in these words. Elizabeth Acevedo is gifted and I am grateful to have found her litterateur. Thank you for this beautiful story of beautiful, strong, powerful women. Thank you

Beautiful story.

Beautiful story. I felt like it could have been my family. It touched me deeply.

Good but was hard to get past the SA

The storyline was strong but the childhood SA was absolutely unnecessary, even with her odd “power”. A child being exposed to porn and witnessing intercourse is SA, and they just roll through it like it’s nothing. I finished it because I needed to know how it ended but I won’t be recommending it any time soon.

honor of family

I loved the backstory or explanation for everyone's life. The honor in which it was told/written was beautiful. Thank you for relatable stories and the multi generational connections.