num_pages: 286
description: A dazzling heartbreaking page-turner destined for breakout status: a novel that gives voice to millions of Americans as it tells the story of the love between a Panamanian boy and a Mexican girl: teenagers living in an apartment block of immigrant families like their own.After their daughter Maribel suffers a near-fatal accident the Riveras leave Mxico and come to America. But upon settling at Redwood Apartments a two-story cinderblock complex just off a highway in Delaware they discover that Maribel's recovery--the piece of the American Dream on which they've pinned all their hopes--will not be easy. Every task seems to confront them with language racial and cultural obstacles.At Redwood also lives Mayor Toro a high school sophomore whose family arrived from Panam fifteen years ago. Mayor sees in Maribel something others do not: that beyond her lovely face and beneath the damage she's sustained is a gentle funny and wise spirit. But as the two grow closer violence casts a shadow over all their futures in America.Peopled with deeply sympathetic characters this poignant yet unsentimental tale of young love tells a riveting story of unflinching honesty and humanity that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be an American. An instant classic is born.
language: English
title: The Book of Unknown Americans
publisher: Knopf