The Things We Didn't Know

De: Elba Iris Pérez

Narrado por: Marisa Blake

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

The USA TODAY bestselling inaugural winner of Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us contest, Elba Iris Pérez’s lyrical and “wonderfully compelling” (Judith Simon Prager, author of What the Dolphin Said) cross-cultural coming-of-age debut novel explores a young girl’s childhood between 1950s Puerto Rico and a small Massachusetts factory town.

Andrea Rodríguez is nine years old when her mother whisks her and her brother, Pablo, away from Woronoco, the tiny Massachusetts factory town that is the only home they’ve known. With no plan and no money, she leaves them with family in the mountainside villages of Puerto Rico and promises to return.

Months later, when Andrea and Pablo are brought back to Massachusetts, they find their hometown significantly changed. As they navigate the rifts between their family’s values and all-American culture and face the harsh realities of growing up, they must embrace both the triumphs and heartache that mark the journey to adulthood.

A heartfelt, evocative portrait that “breathes with narrative magic” (Harry Youtt, poet and author of I’m Never Not Thinking of You), The Things We Didn’t Know establishes Elba Iris Pérez as a sensational new literary voice.

©2024 Elba Iris Pérez (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Incredible Story of an Immigrant-Transplant Experience

I was hooked after chapter 11. Pablo’s story really stood out as well. Immigrants + First Generation citizens are often led under a strict household and also making a valid effort to assimilate to American society. Wonderful read.

Excellent, riveting!

This is beautifully written and I hope to hear more from this author. She takes the reader with her through each and every experience

Beautiful story …

Great book about the love in a family and overcoming issues. Wonderfully written story that I will share.

American Dream ?

Very well written story of an immigrant family trying to have the American Dream. Perseverance personified. The main character was so well portrayed in words and story

An thoughtfully layered coming of age story

Most of us think back to our youth with both fondness and heartache, the same is true of Andreas and Pablo’s story. They were siblings and best Friends who had seen each other through the ups and downs of life between two cultures. As a Puerto Rican I find the story has even more meaning to highlight the large waves of Puerto Ricans who migrated in the 50’s. We don’t often hear about the ones who landed in Massachusetts, and those stories matter. Andrea and Pablo’s story is proof that the bond between siblings is not easily broken even when there is distance and heartache in between.

Everything but the kitchen sink PRican version

Reads like a teen novel. I feel author threw in everything that is PRican culture, language and experience to make a PRican story that sounded forced.