Julia Alvarez

"Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of this novel, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her husband, Sam suddenly dies. And then more jolt: her big-hearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves--lines from her...

"When celebrated writer Alma Cruz inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, she turns iut into a place to bury her untold stories--literally. She creates a graveyard for manuscript drafts and revisions and the characters whose lives she tried but failed to bring to life and who still haunt her. Alma wants her characters to rest in peace, but they have other ideas, and the cemetery becomes a nysterious sanctuary for their true narratives."--Provided...

Although ten-year-old Miguel is at first embarrassed by his colorful aunt, Tia Lola, when she comes to Vermont from the Dominican Republic to stay with his mother, his sister, and him after his parents' divorce, he learns to love her.

Worried that Papa Espada cannot find a job, Tía Lola, Juanita, Miguel, and the "Sword" sisters decide to start a bed and breakfast at Colonel Charlebois's Vermont house. "Con la ayuda de sus sobrinos y de las tres hermanas Espada, tía Lola abrir á las puertas de la majestuosa casa antigua del coronel Charlebois a visitantes de todas las procedencias. Pero pronto se darán cuenta de que poner a funcionar este pequeño hotel no resulta tan fácil...