Publisher Description
“This debut novel traces a group of survivors who fall under the spell of an authoritarian cult leader in the days following Hurricane Maria’s destruction in Puerto Rico. It is deeply imagined and deeply felt – imagistic and strange and haunting – and simmering with grief and rage.” -- Gabriela Garcia, New York Times bestselling author
Set in the wake of Hurricane Maria, Xavier Navarro Aquino’s unforgettable debut novel follows a remarkable group of survivors searching for hope on an island torn apart by both natural disaster and human violence.
Camila is haunted by the death of her sister, Marisol, who was caught by a mudslide during the huracán. Unable to part with Marisol, Camila carries her through town, past the churchyard, and, eventually, to the supposed utopia of Memoria.
Urayoán, the idealistic, yet troubled cult leader of Memoria, has a vision for this new society, one that in his eyes is peaceful and democratic. The paradise he preaches lures in the young, including Bayfish, a boy on the cusp of manhood, and Morivivi, a woman whose outward toughness belies an inner tenderness for her friends. But as the different members of Memoria navigate Urayoán’s fiery rise, they will need to confront his violent authoritarian impulses in order to find a way to reclaim their home.
Velorio—meaning “wake”—is a story of strength, resilience, and hope; a tale of peril and possibility buoyed by the deeply held belief in a people’s ability to unite against those corrupted by power.
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“With voices of childlike clarity, youthful intensity, and sheer menace, Diana Pou, Vico Ortiz, and Gabriel S. Rivera Vázquez lead a skilled group of Latin actors in narrating this surreal, dark fantasy…The all-Latin cast’s heartfelt deliveries and fluency in Spanish give a personal and authentic sound to this examination of what it is to lose one’s world. A chilling and penetrating listen.”
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AudioFile
About Xavier Navarro Aquino
Xavier Navarro Aquino is an author whose fiction has appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and Guernica. He has been awarded scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a MacDowell Fellowship, and an ACLS Emerging Voices Fellowship at Dartmouth College. He is an assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame where he teaches in the MFA degree program. He was born and raised in Puerto Rico.
About the Narrators
Yetta Gottesman, an audiobook narrator, actor, and director of Puerto Rican and Jewish heritage, was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Brazil. She is completely fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. She is a lifetime member of the prestigious Actors Studio and LAByrinth Theater Company.
Qarie Marshall is an Earphones Award–winning narrator. He has narrated more than thirty series for the Discovery Channel, TLC, and the BBC, as well as providing the in-flight programming for Virgin Atlantic Airlines and BBC radio plays. He has voiced over eighty video games for the PlayStation and Xbox and was a guest voice on Comedy Central’s Drawn Together. He was made an associate artist of the Purple Rose Theatre in 2007.
Iva-Marie Palmer is the author of The Summers and The End of the World as We Know It. She grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband.
Yetta Gottesman, an audiobook narrator, actor, and director of Puerto Rican and Jewish heritage, was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Brazil. She is completely fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. She is a lifetime member of the prestigious Actors Studio and LAByrinth Theater Company.
Neil Hellegers grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a BA in theater arts and a minor in psychology before getting an MFA in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. He moved to New York City in 2003 and, since then, has made a career of theatrical performance, percussion, theater education, and audiobook narration. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.