Family Lore

A big-hearted, compassionate novel about three generations of women preparing for a living wake — from award-winning poet and author Elizabeth Acevedo

Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. When she decides she wants a living wake — a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she's led — her sisters are surprised. Has Flor forseen her own death? Or someone else's? Does she have other motives?

But Flor isn't the only person with secrets. Matilde has tried for decades to cover the extent of her husband's infidelity, but she now must confront the true state of her marriage. Pastora is typically the most reserved sister, but Flor's wake motivates this driven woman to attempt to solve her sibling's problems. Camila is the youngest sibling, often the forgotten one, but she's decided she no longer wants to be taken for granted. And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own: Yadi, reuniting with her first love, who was imprisoned when they were both still kids; and Ona, married for years and attempting to conceive.

Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo's inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces — one family's journey through their history helping them better navigate all that is to come.