The Things We Didn't Know

(Paperback)

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER

The USA TODAY bestselling inaugural winner of Simon & Schusters Books Like Us contest, Elba Iris Prezs lyrical and wonderfully compelling (Judith Simon Prager, author of What the Dolphin Said) cross-cultural coming-of-age debut novel explores a young girls childhood between 1950s Puerto Rico and a small Massachusetts factory town.

Andrea Rodrguez 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 theyve 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 familys 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 Im Never Not Thinking of You), The Things We Didnt Know establishes Elba Iris Prez as a sensational new literary voice.

Reviews

"Elba Iris Prezs debut novel,The Things We Didnt Know,breathes with narrative magic ...Andrea's coming-of-age as shesearches for a stable sense of family will resonate with readers as if it were their own reality."

Harry Youtt, poet and author ofI'm Never Not Thinking of You
"The Things We Didn't Knowwill sweep you up from Massachusetts to Puerto Rico and back again in a whirlwind of unfamiliar cultures, betrayals, cruelties, and loves. Elba Iris Prez delivers a wonderfully compelling read."

Judith Simon Prager, co-author ofThe Worst Is Overand author ofWhat the Dolphin Said
Elba Iris Prez gifts us with rich and powerful storytelling, the triumphant intelligence of the heart.

Elidio La Torre Lagares
The Things We Didnt Know, Elba Iris Prezs debut novel, flows along two rivers: one in Woronoco, which means the winding river, and the other in Aguas Buenas, or the untainted waters of Puerto Rico. As Andrea moves from a working-class, all-Americantown to the great disparities of American colonization and back, she must tame even wilder waters, coming toterms with self, race, and personal identity in the shadow of history.

Elidio La Torre Lagares, author of Wonderful Wasteland and other natural disasters

Author Bio

Elba Iris Prez 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 Didnt Know, was an instantUSA TODAYbestseller and the inaugural winner of Simon & Schusters Books Like Us First Novel Contest. She is also the author ofEl teatro como bandera, a history of street theater in Puerto Rico.