The Book of Unknown Americans: A Novel
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The Book of Unknown Americans: A Novel Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Cristina Henríquez (Author), Various (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 4,039 ratings
Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction
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A boy and a girl who fall in love. Two families whose hopes collide with destiny. An extraordinary novel that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American.

Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible injury, one that casts doubt on whether she’ll ever be the same. And so, leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel can get better.

When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar Tree store, it is love at first sight. It’s also the beginning of a friendship between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt and love and responsibility is at this novel’s core.

Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America. Their journeys and their voices will inspire you, surprise you, and break your heart.

Suspenseful, wry and immediate, rich in spirit and humanity, The Book of Unknown Americans is a work of rare force and originality.

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  1. Listening Length
    9 hours and 12 minutes
  2. Author
    Cristina Henríquez
  3. Narrator
    Various
  4. Audible release date
    June 3, 2014
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B00JVWBIY0
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 9 hours and 12 minutes
Author Cristina Henríquez
Narrator Various
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date June 03, 2014
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B00JVWBIY0
Best Sellers Rank #27,378 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#44 in Latino American Literature
#141 in Hispanic American Literature & Fiction
#634 in Family Life Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

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Top reviews from the United States

Kenneth C. Mahieu
5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible rich and rewarding story - much more than "love at first sight"
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2015
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This book, barely 300 pages, is incredibly rich; it offers so much to the reader. It tells a very powerful story, one that will stay with you for some time. "Unknown Americans" focuses on a small community of Latin American immigrants, particularly two families, living in an apartment complex in Newark, Delaware, of all places. At an impromptu Christmas day get-together in a cramped, unheated apartment, they toast each other's origins by calling out their places of birth to cheers and laughter: "Panama ! Mexico! Puerto Rico ! Nicaragua ! .....". It is an incredible scene and the reader is struck by the realization of how little they have yet how much they have. Despite some of the "love at first sight" blurbs that are used to promote this book, this is not a romance. UA deals with their struggles day to day, just to survive. Losing jobs, finding jobs, doing menial work, e.g., picking mushrooms in darkened sheds. But then author Henriquez counters with incredible passages dealing with hopes, dreams, small victories. Unfortunately, there is not always a pot of gold at the end of everyone's rainbow, and some are forced to return, occasionally for the most tragic reasons, to their places of births. This is a very emotional story, very uplifting, very well written; I cannot recall one false note in this book, nor one thing I would have changed. I believe that it would be difficult for any native American to read this book and not come away with kinder, gentler feelings toward all immigrants, but particularly those from Latin America.
5 people found this helpful
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Nancy Brisson or N. L. Brisson
4.0 out of 5 stars The Riveras and Their Neighbors - Immigrant Stories
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2014
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Those who discuss politics in the media have had much to say about immigration lately because it is clear that having so many people living in the shadows and working for whoever will hire them is not really an acceptable social plan. I have heard many commentators say that anecdotal stories that zero in on specific undocumented families and individuals are the best way to describe to the American people how this situation affects uninvited residents. Knowing why these folks left their homes to go to a place where they would be homesick, would hardly expect to be welcome, and where they could be caught and sent home at any moment does not sound like something one does on a lark. So perhaps those media people have a valid point.

In The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henríquez we meet a family, Arturo and Alma Rivera and their daughter, Maribel. They own their own home in Mexico and they did not want to leave but Maribel suffered some brain damage in an accidental fall; brain damage which may be reversible. In Mexico the Rivera parents were advised to take Maribel to the US for special education classes and a school in Delaware was recommended. The family waits a long time to get their visas and a job for Arturo so they can come to the US legally. Arturo spends his days in Delaware in a dark, damp cellar picking mushrooms for an hourly wage. They have rented an apartment in a two-story cinder block apartment building with a concrete landing and railing along the second floor.

The building they live in is occupied by a wide variety of Spanish-speaking people from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Columbia, Mexico, Panama, and Paraguay. I don’t believe it was easy to create a story that ties these disparate people (whose only commonality is language) together but with the Rivera family as the main focus the book functions well as a cohesive novel rather than a series of politically inspired anecdotes. We come to care about Arturo, Alma, and Maribel and their closest neighbors the Toros (from Panama) Celia, Rafael, and Mayor.
Maribel was once an intelligent, adventurous girl. She is also very beautiful. With her diminished capacity and her exquisite looks Alma worries about protecting Maribel from men (both young and old) who may take advantage of her. As we find out what happens to the Rivera family in Delaware we learn that even the most well-intentioned people may experience challenges when they are “strangers in a strange land.”

Whether or not Henríquez’ novel convinces you that we need to help 12 million people come out of hiding, Cristina’s story hangs together well as a novel. It is not perfect, not a deeply literary novel, but it is engrossing and enlightening and not overly long either. If it helps to raise our social consciousness about a group we see as sort of monolithic and begins to help individualize Spanish-speaking immigrants who come to America than it has earned its way (as has many another novel with social motives).
8 people found this helpful
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William Capodanno
5.0 out of 5 stars Get to Know these "unknown Americans"
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2015
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This is a wonderfully touching and poignant novel about Latin & South American immigrants in America. In keeping with the title, the author sets the novel in the non-descript state of Delaware, not California, Texas or NY, places with far greater concentrations of Latin American immigrant populations. Set in and around an apartment complex where all these characters live, the core story centers on two families, the Riveras and the Toros, one family recent arrivals to America, the other more “firmly” settled. Henriquez seamlessly intersperses other characters to complement and to provide greater texture to the story and that of the immigrant experience.

The Riveras, having patiently waited for their documentation to be approved, make the journey from Mexico to Delaware, primarily seeking better education for their daughter Maribel. She suffered a head injury after an accidental fall and has lost some short term memory while negatively impacting her upbeat personality. They meet the Riveras who’ve been in the US longer and have two sons, one a college student at the University of Maryland and a younger high school student, Mayor. A central plot line is the developing teenage relationship between Mayor and Maribel, both “misfits” within the broader set of peers, one due to her mental state and Mayor for not fitting a physical stereotype. While this central plot propels this novel, “The Book of Unknown Americans” is magical in how it communicates the far more mundane aspects of life. While these may mundane for a native, for an immigrant they are anything but that.

"The Book of Unknown Americans" is a beautiful story of newcomers struggling to understand a new culture while longing for family and familiarity they left behind. It’s about the nervousness of getting on a bus when you don’t speak the language, unsure of what stop to get off at or how to signal to the driver to let you out at the next stop. Or about finding food from your homeland so you can cook meals for your family. Or the rejection from work for lacking skills or not speaking the language or settling for menial jobs, like mushroom picker or short order cook, to get a subsistence paycheck. There are many unknown Americans, these happen to be immigrants who share some of the same hopes, aspirations, struggles and fears like everyone else. We’ll laugh with them and cry with them, but certainly be thankful we understand them a bit better.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Brenda García
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesante , entretenido
Reviewed in Mexico on November 5, 2022
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Entretenido
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Beth Sandoval
5.0 out of 5 stars Get this book!
Reviewed in Spain on September 2, 2022
Verified Purchase
It starts off a little slow, giving the background of each character. Around the middle is where I got hooked and couldn’t put the book down. The ending left me with so many emotions and wishing it didn’t have to end. highly recommend!! The characters feel so real so you really connect to them
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W. A. Burt
5.0 out of 5 stars Finding is for things that are lost.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2020
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A superficially simplistic but absorbing tale that examines the ramifications and repercussions that can arise from the decisions we make in life.
Alma and Arturo Rivera move to Delaware,prepared to endure sacrifice and hardship.Pinning all their hopes on their daughter's restoration from a brain trauma.
In the space of 305 pages I felt as though I actually knew the main protagonists.Such was the skill of Henriquez through her deft,descriptive and transformative words.
My only minor criticism was the testimonials.Anything they added to the book was negated by the disruption to the continuity they caused.
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Kelsi
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Reviewed in Canada on July 23, 2015
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What an amazing novel. This book tells the story of two immigrant families who live in the same building, alternating perspectives between the four parents. In between the parents' perspectives, Henriquez includes brief chapters which take the perspective of another resident in the building. You learn why they came to America, how they got there, and what their experience has been like. It is truly fascinating and eye opening.

I love how Henriquez explored multiple marginalized groups in this book. The daugher, Maribel is a young woman of color from Mexico, does not speak English well, comes from a family with not a lot of money in the United States, and has a disability.

The book provided great insight as to what it is like to be an immigrant and it is true that these people are often unknown and their stories are not heard. Perhaps if more people read this book, there would be more empathy towards immigrants and other marginalized people.
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NTM
5.0 out of 5 stars uncle Tom's cabin of our time
Reviewed in France on September 10, 2014
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Great book! If you are a parent - make your kid(s) read it. That-will make them better people and open their eyes
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