Homecoming - by Julia Alvarez (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Homecoming is Alvarez's first published collection of poetry, a work of great subtlety and power in which the young poet returned to her old-world childhood in the Dominican Republic. Now this revised and expanded edition adds thirteen new poems.

Long before her award winning novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez was writing poetry that gave a distinctive voice to the Latina woman and helped give to American letters a vibrant new literary form. These more recent writings are still deeply autobiographical in nature, but written with the edgier, more knowing tone of a woman who has seen, and survived, more of life. Wonderfully lucid and engaging, toned with deep emotionality and a wry observation of life, the poems of Julia Alvarez stand next to her fiction to both delight us and give us lessons in living and loving.

From the Back Cover

Long before her award-winning novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez was writing poetry that gave a distinctive voice to the Latina woman - and helped give to American letters a vibrant new literary form. Homecoming was Alvarez's first published collection of poetry, a work of great subtlety and power in which the young poet returned to her old-world childhood in the Dominican Republic. Now this revised and expanded edition adds thirteen new poems. These more recent writings are still deeply autobiographical in nature, but written with the edgier, more knowing tone of a woman who has seen, and survived, more of life. Wonderfully lucid and engaging, toned with deep emotionality and a wry observation of life, the poems of Julia Alvarez stand next to her fiction to both delight us and give us lessons in living and loving.

Review Quotes

Praise for En el tiempo de las mariposas

"Un libro importante... emocionalmente sobrecogedor. Alvarez nos hace un regalo cargado de rara generosidad y coraje."--The San Diego Union-Tribune

"Un regalo de amor sinfónico y espléndido... un magnífico tesoro para todas las culturas y todos los tiempos... una novela que celebra la corriente de vida que fluye entre las mujeres, conectándolas y dándolas coraje para luchar por la justicia y la resistencia, y corazones para amar y perdonar libremente... Julia Alvarez es una escritora asombrosa."--St. Petersburg Times

"Maravilloso... una narración enriquecedora... entrelaza hábilmente la realidad y la ficción hasta alcanzar un sobrecogedor clímax."--Newsweek

"Una novela con un tremendo poder... un libro bello y valiente."--West Coast Review of Books

Praise for Once Upon a Quinceañera

"Phenomenal... indispensable. Alvarez's novelistic eye makes Once Upon a Quinceañera an intimate, intoxicating read."--San Francisco Chronicle

"A journey into experiencing a vital, exuberant ritual of modern Latino life... As an author, Alvarez is a terrific tour guide."--The Seattle Times

"[Alvarez] brings a critical eye to long-held myths... Each page is a love song to the cultural ties that bind generations of women from a diverse group of countries."--Chicago Sun-Times

"Fascinating, exhaustively researched."--The Washington Post

"Alvarez's honest grappling with her caught-between-two-cultures experience is compelling."--Entertainment Weekly

About the Author

Julia Alvarez is the author of the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies (a national Book Critics Circle Award finalist), and Yo!. She has also published two poetry collections (Homecoming and The Other side/El Otro Lado) and a collection of essays (Something to Declare).

Julia Álvarez es la autora de De cómo las chicas García perdieron el acento, En el tiempo de las mariposas (un finalista del National Book Critics Circle Award) y ¡Yo!. También ha publicado dos colecciones de poesía y una colección de ensayos. Julia Álvarez vive en Vermont y en República Dominicana, donde dirige una cooperativa de café orgánico, y un centro de alfabetización y arte con su esposo.