num_pages: 256
description: The first adult novel in almost fifteen years by the internationally bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the Garca Girls Lost Their AccentsAntonia Vega the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband Sam suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted 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 loveslines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrackbut now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.Afterlife is a compact nimble and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families includingmaybe especiallymembers of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?
language: English
title: Afterlife
publisher: Algonquin Books