Title:- The Waves Take You Home
Author:- Maria Alejandra Barrios Velez
Date published:- will be published on 19th March 2024
No. of pages:- 331 pages
Genre:- Literary/Women’s Fiction
Setting:- Colombia, New York
Rating:-
Plot:- 4/5
Writing:- 5/5
Overall rating:- 4.5/5
In this heartfelt story about how the places we run from hold the answers to our deepest challenges, the death of her grandmother brings a young woman home, where she must face the past in order to become the heir of not just the family restaurant, but her own destiny.
Violeta Sanoguera had always done what she was told. She left the man she loved in Colombia in pursuit of a better life for herself and because her mother and grandmother didn’t approve of him. Chasing dreams of education and art in New York City, and with a new love, twenty-eight-year-old Violeta establishes a new life for herself, on her terms. But when her grandmother suddenly dies, everything changes.
After years of being on her own in NYC, Violeta finds herself on a plane back to Colombia, accompanied at all times by the ghost of her grandmother who is sending her messages and signs, to find she is the heir of the failing family restaurant, the very one Abuela told her to run from in the first place. The journey leads her to rediscover her home, her grandmother, and even the flame of an old love.
Violeta has always been told what to do in her life. Which includes leaving behind her lover Rafa behind in Colombia so she could move to New York for college. Now many years later, Violeta is living in New York with her American boyfriend Liam and seemingly seem to have a happy life until she gets the news that her abuela is dead. Violeta returns back to Colombia and finds that she, her mother and Anton are left in charge to run abuela’s restaurant. And while in Colombia, she experiences heartbreaks, emotions and of course meeting her ex-boyfriend Rafa who is now a doctor.
This book is one of the realistic novels that I have read. The overall story has a whole was well written and I find myself touring in Colombia while reading the novel. Violeta seems to be a very realistic character as she struggles with dealing with abuela’s death, her emotions as well as her decisions to carry on abuela’s restaurant. The book in my opinion was quiet unputdownable and I was actually enjoying reading this book. All the characters in this book re likable and this is a book that something you would want to check out. If you have read Kennedy Ryan’s Before I Let You Go, then this book is one for you. Worth 4.5 stars.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.
María Alejandra Barrios Vélez is a writer born in Barranquilla, Colombia. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of Manchester and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and scruffy dog, Gus.
She was the 2020 SmokeLong Flash Fiction Fellow, and her stories have been published in Shenandoah Literary, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, El Malpensante, Fractured Lit, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Offing, and more. Her work has been supported by organizations such as Vermont Studio Center, Caldera Arts, and the New Orleans Writers’ Residency.
The Waves Take You Home is María’s debut, inspired by the resilience and strength of the women in her family and the Caribbean city she spent most of her life in.
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