When I lost sight in one eye, I felt heartbroken that all my unrealized characters and their unfinished stories might not find the light of day. So, very slowly, with great frustration at first as I learned to work in new ways with compromised vision, I created a place where they could finally be finished. This is not my last book, or so I hope. I’m not yet ready to join my characters in the cemetery of untold stories.
― Julia Alvarez, Interview, Publishers Weekly
What booksellers are saying about The Cemetery of Untold Stories
- I loved the cemetery setting filled with the characters whose unfinished stories were literally buried because the writer didn’t want to lose her mind with so many voices and tales rambling around in her head. She thought they would lie to rest and leave her be, but instead they burst to life, their stories pouring out to anyone who would listen. Imaginative, moving – a real joy to read!
― Cathy Graham, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida | BUY
- Alma, a successful novelist, is haunted by the stories she was never able to finish. When she inherits a plot of land in the Dominican Republic, she decides it is time to put those stories to rest, and creates a cemetery for her unfinished manuscripts. Her stories have other ideas. What follows is a fascinating, compelling examination of the nature of stories–why we tell them, who gets to hear them, and the nature of authorship itself.
― Charlie Marks, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia | BUY
- This is a novel idea! An author tries to bury her story but the characters come to life and try to change the plot to something they want. Magically told through this creative and fantastic authors voice you want to jump into the book to live the experience. I just couldn’t put it down. This is one that will stay under my skin for a long time.
― Suzanne Lucey, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina | BUY
About Julia Alvarez
Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer in residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.
