By: Angie Cruz
Narrated by: Coral Peña
Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 09-03-19
Language: English
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Format: mp3 64/48 stereo
Publisher's Summary
One of Esquire Magazine's 2019 Best Books of the Year
A Good Morning America Cover to Cover Book Club Pick
This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.
Named a Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, O Magazine, Time, Real Simple, Chicago Review of Books, Kirkus Reviews, Nylon, BuzzFeed, Lit Hub, The Millions, InStyle, Bustle, Refinery29, Hello Giggles, AARP, Domino
"Coral Pena's strong delivery is a breath of fresh air...a master of accents and emotion, bringing genuine pathos to the story." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner)
Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. It doesn’t matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year’s Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan’s free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay.
As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family’s assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.
In bright, musical prose that reflects the energy of New York City, Angie Cruz's Dominicana is a vital portrait of the immigrant experience and the timeless coming-of-age story of a young woman finding her voice in the world.
Praise for Dominicana:
"Through a novel with so much depth, beauty, and grace, we, like Ana, are forever changed." (Jacqueline Woodson, Vanity Fair)
"Coral Pena's strong delivery is a breath of fresh air - her depiction of Ana blends confidence and naïveté as the protagonist makes her way from her home in the Dominican Republic to New York, from a simple life to a complicated one. Pena is a master of accents and emotion, bringing genuine pathos to the story. At times, her pace quickens precipitously, but the overall impact of her elegant narrative is appealing." (AudioFile Earphone Award)
"Lovely... Compelling... An intimate portrait of the transactional nature of marriage and the economics of both womanhood and citizenship, one all too familiar to many first-generation Americans." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Through a novel with so much depth, beauty, and grace, we, like Ana, are forever changed." (Jacqueline Woodson, Vanity Fair)
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