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In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Don’t miss out—purchases support your local bookstore!
Shop nowBrother, Sister, Mother, Explorer
Narrator
Joana Garcia
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Length
6 hours 7 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“One of a number of excellent debut novels already out in the still-new year, this is a singular work. Taking on the coming-of-age from young adulthood into something deeper and more mature, the story follows a sister and brother as they reckon with their mother’s passing and begin to understand what life should and should not be as it gets lived. Their tourist town of Ciudad de Tres Hermanas gives us not only a vivid picture of the present but casts a knowing eye on the layers of the past. Beautifully done.”
— Rick Simonson • The Elliott Bay Book Company
A fableistic, "curious and dazzling" debut novel of enormous power and grace about a sister trying to hold back her brother from the edge of the abyss for fans of Jesmyn Ward and Tommy Orange (Booklist, starred review).
In the tourist town of Ciudad de Tres Hermanas, in the aftermath of their mother's passing, two siblings spend a final weekend together in their childhood home. Seeing her brother, Rafa, careening toward a place of no return, Rufina devises a bet: if they can make enough money performing for privileged tourists in the plaza over the course of the weekend to afford a plane ticket out, Rafa must commit to living. If not, Rufina will make her peace with Rafa's own plan for the future, however terrifying it may be.
As the siblings reckon with generational and ancestral trauma, set against the indignities of present-day prejudice, other strange hauntings begin to take place: their mother's ghost kicks her heels against the walls; Rufina's vanished child creeps into her arms at night; and above all this, watching over the siblings, a genderless, flea-bitten angel remains hell-bent on saving what can be saved.
Jamie Figueroa received her MFA in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her writing has appeared in Epoch, McSweeney's, and American Short Fiction. She is the recipient of the Truman Capote Scholarship and is a Bread Loaf scholar. Boricua by way of Ohio, Figueroa lives in northern New Mexico.
Joana Garcia is a retired military officer with twenty years of active duty under her belt. She spent most of her adult life fixing fighter jets on aircraft carriers as a US Navy aviation maintenance officer. Her love of the sea is only seconded by her love of telling stories. Her warm, rich, and graceful voice can be heard in over sixty titles in multiple genres, fiction and nonfiction. Joana began narrating audiobooks after retiring from the military, becoming a stay at home mom and listening to audiobooks. After countless coaching sessions, audio engineering tutorials, and setting up a professional studio, she is fulfilling her lifelong dream of being a professional actor. Joana volunteers to mentor veterans through Veterati.com and is an active member of the Audio Publishers Association.
