After the Hurricane: A Novel
Written by Leah Franqui
Narrated by Frankie Corzo
4/5
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About this audiobook
Named by Etaf Rum as one of the Best Beach Reads of All Time for ""Read with Jenna!""
Reminiscent of Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt, Leah Franqui brings us an engrossing, deeply personal novel with a mystery at its heart as a daughter returns to Puerto Rico to search for her troubled father, who has gone missing after Hurricane Maria.
From the outside, Elena Vega’s life appears to be an easy one: the only child of two professional parents, private school, NYU. But her twenties are aimless and lacking in connection. Something has always been amiss in her life: her father, the brilliant but deeply troubled Santiago Vega.
Born in rural Puerto Rico, Santiago arrived in New York as a small child. His harsh, mercurial father returned to the island, leaving Santiago to be raised by his mentally ill mother and his formidable grandmother. An outstanding student, he followed scholarships to Stanford, then Yale Law, marrying Elena’s mother along the way. Santiago is the shining star of his migrant family—the one who made it out and struck it rich. But he is a haunted man, plagued by trauma, bipolar disorder, and alcoholism. He’s lost contact with Elena over the years and returned to San Juan to wrestle his demons alone.
Then Hurricane Maria strikes, and Santiago vanishes. Desperate to know what happened to the father she once adored, Elena returns to Puerto Rico, a place she loved as a child but hasn’t seen in years. There she must unravel the truth about who her father is, crisscrossing the storm-swept island and reaching deep into his family tree to find relatives she’s never met, each of whom seems to possess a clue about Santiago’s fate.
A compelling mystery unfolds, as Elena is reunited with family, and with a place she loved and lost—the island of Puerto Rico, which is itself a character in this book. It’s a story of connection, migration, striving, love, and loss, illuminated by humor and affection, written by a novelist at the height of her gifts.
Editor's Note
Immersive…
Puerto Rican-American Elena Vega returns to the island after Hurricane Maria to search for her missing father. Part mystery, part family saga, “After the Hurricane” follows Elena’s attempts to not only find the troubled but brilliant Santiago Vega, but also to understand him and her dispersed heritage. Atmospheric and immersive, this novel explores generational trauma associated with alcoholism, abuse, and mental illness.
Leah Franqui
Leah Franqui is a graduate of Yale University. She is a playwright and the recipient of the 2013 Goldberg Playwriting Award. Leah, a Puerto Rican-Jewish Philadelphia native, lives with her Kolkata-born husband in Mumbai.
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Reviews for After the Hurricane
6 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautiful story about PR and parent relationships. We need more stories like this!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5While Elena is discovering the story of her dad, her family, of herself, the author talks to the reader about how roots, immigration, colonization, family relationships, diasporas... All of these factors play an important part in defining our identity, our sense of belonging, our self-esteem.
The author also explores the identity of present day Puerto Ricans and their status of a modern day colony from Us, she doesn't give that name, but describes a lot of aspects from it, letting the reader create the picture for themselves.
I enjoyed reading it and it broke my heart several times.