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    The Things We Didn't Know
    The Things We Didn't Know
    The Things We Didn't Know
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Things We Didn't Know

    Written by Elba Iris Pérez

    Narrated by Marisa Blake

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    Editor's Note

    Torn between two worlds…

    Andrea Rodríguez is growing up in 1950s Woronoco, Massachusetts, when her mother, homesick, sneaks Andrea and her little brother back to their native Puerto Rico — and abandons them. When the children’s father eventually retrieves them, Andrea struggles to feel at home while grieving her mother’s absence and resenting her father’s strict ideals. This coming-of-age story about a girl torn between two worlds — but at home in neither — dissects stifling gender expectations, clashing cultures, and the strength of family bonds.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateFeb 6, 2024
    ISBN9781797167589
    Author

    Elba Iris Pérez

    Elba Iris Pérez is from Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, and spent her early childhood in Woronoco, Massachusetts. She taught theatre and history at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo, and now lives in Houston. Her debut novel, The Things We Didn’t Know, was an instant USA TODAY bestseller and the inaugural winner of Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us First Novel Contest. She is also the author of El teatro como bandera, a history of street theater in Puerto Rico. 

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    Reviews for The Things We Didn't Know

    4/5

    91 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A deep dive into an intimate population of people and a family who is navigating a new life.
    • 5/5
      I was hooked from the very start! Kept wanting to know what else would happen. I like her story telling and definitely wasn’t expecting what happen towards the end don’t want to spoil it. Read the book if you read this much of my review. I’m Latina and try to find stories that I can relate to definitely loved this book! Will recommend to friends and family
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! It is a coming of age story told by Andrea, who came to the states from Puerto Rico when she was three.

      I liked the way it begins by her remembering her life from the point of view as a small child. Why are the grownups acting that way? What’s going on?

      Andrea had a very unique life. She was raised, along with her brother Pablo, in a small Puerto Rican community by her father who worked at the nearby paper mill. Their father, although loving, was very strict and limited their contact with neighbors. Because of this the siblings were very close.

      The story tells the emotional events that took them through the years as they grew to adulthood.

      I loved this book because it is so real. Just a simple remembrance of growing up but filled with so many emotions.