Join us Tuesday, October 8th at the Whiskey Barrel, 251 East Main St, Stratford, CT. We will meet at 7:00pm and then start our discussion at 7:30pm. Please tell all your friends this is so exciting. We will be discussing Afterlife by Julia Alvarez. Copies are available at the check out desk. Let me know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing everyone.

Book Synopsis:

the first adult novel in almost 15 years by the internationally best-selling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.

Antonia 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 loves - lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack - but 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, including - maybe especially - members 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?