International Latino Book Award Gold Medal Winner Winner of the Friends of American Writers Literature Award For fans of Rebecca Serle and Elizabeth Acevedo, a ‘lyrical, poignant, and powerful’ (Yamile Saied Mendez, award-winning author of All Roads Lead to Rome) work of magical realism about a woman’s journey to Colombia to discover her roots and what it means to carry our ancestors with us. Dolores Moore’s dead relatives refuse to stay quiet. They trail after her like a Greek chorus with no respect for personal boundaries, filling her crumbling Victorian with unsolicited advice, family gossip, and increasingly urgent opinions about her return to Colombia-the birthplace she barely remembers. Dorrie would rather stay in Minneapolis, where the problems are manageable: an ex she hasn’t forgotten, a cartography career that’s evaporated overnight, a creaky inherited house, and two needy orange cats. But when a cryptic hand-drawn map surfaces and an old flame offers to watch the house, the voices leave her no choice. So begins a journey to Colombia guided by photographs of her mother, half-remembered stories about her father, and a little bit of magic as Dorrie searches for the truth about her family origins, her ancestral roots, and what’s been calling her to her rightful place.
