Episode 29 --- Natalia Sylvester
Photo Credit: Eric Sylvester
Natalia Sylvester's second novel, Everyone Knows You Go Home, has one of the most memorable opening scenes I've read in a long time.
The novel opens on the wedding day of Martin and Isabel when his deceased father, Omar, shows up. Omar goes on to appear every year on the couple's anniversary, which is coincidentally the Day of the Dead.
Natalia handles this so well that as a reader you never question it.
Throughout the novel, she weaves the past and present to tell the story of the Bravo family that came to the United States from Mexico in the 1980s without documentation.
While Everyone Knows You Go Home is an immigration story at its core, Natalia also explores the ties that bind the Bravo family as well as the secrets that threaten to tear them apart.
As a young child, Natalia's family came to the U.S. from Peru, and sharing the immigrant experience is one of her obsessions as a writer.
Interview Highlights:
Natalia reveals...
- Why she doesn't think of immigration as an issue
- How much research she conducted prior to writing
- Why she's not a fan of a classic book you probably read in high school
Click here to listen to the podcast.
We have a free copy of Everyone Knows You Go Home for the first listener to tell us the book Natalia loved when she was young and that she recently read again. To answer, just send us a tweet @ReadMorePodcast or write it on our Facebook page.
If you have won a ReadMore contest in the last 90 days, you're ineligible. Also, if you and I ever delivered an Easter speech on the same program, you're probably ineligible. ReadMore does not have a friends and family plan! But we'll always have those memories of running around hunting eggs in our Sunday best.