Book cover of When Trying to Return Home: Stories

Book description

Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

A dazzling debut collection spanning a century of Black American and Afro-Latino life in Puerto Rico, Pittsburgh, Louisiana, Miami, and beyond--and an evocative meditation on belonging, the meaning of home, and how we secure freedom…

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Why read it?

1 author picked When Trying to Return Home as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book is a stunner! It’s a story collection that grapples with competing loyalties to family, self, community, and love, with several of the stories returning to the same two sisters.

It’s wonderful to see them in different settings, and different points in their lives. And the way in which McCauley weaves words into silken fire, capturing the rhythm and texture of life, makes this book perfect for anyone in love with language!

If you love When Trying to Return Home...

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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