Say Hello to My Little Friend
WINNER of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction
Published on 25. March 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-1-5294-1557-5 (ISBN)
Description
Scarface meets Moby Dick in this groundbreaking, darkly comic novel about a young man's attempt to capitalize on his mother's murky legacy - a story steeped in Miami's marvelous and sinister magic.
Failed Pitbull impersonator Ismael Reyes - you can call him Izzy - might not be the Scarface type, but why should that keep him from trying? Growing up in Miami has shaped him into someone who dreams of being the King of the 305, with the money, power, and respect he assumes comes with it. After finding himself at the mercy of a cease-and-desist letter from Pitbull's legal team and living in his aunt's garage-turned-efficiency, Izzy embarks on an absurd quest to turn himself into a modern-day Tony Montana.
When Izzy's efforts lead him to the tank that houses Lolita, a captive orca at the Miami Seaquarium, she proves just how powerful she and the water surrounding her really are -permeating everything from Miami's sinking streets to Izzy's memories to the very heart of the novel itself. What begins as Izzy's story turns into a super-saturated fever dream as sprawling and surreal as the Magic City, one as sharp as an iguana's claws, and as menacing as a killer whale's teeth. As the truth surrounding Izzy's boyhood escape from Cuba surfaces, the novel reckons with the forces of nature, with the limits and absence of love, and with the dangers of pursuing a tragic inheritance.
Wildly narrated and expertly rendered, Say Hello to My Little Friend is Jennine Capo Crucet's most daring, heart-breaking, and fearless book yet.
Praise for Jennine Capo Crucet
'This is definitely a young writer to watch for-sassy, smart, with an unerring ear for a community's voices, its losses, its over-the-top extravagances, and its poignant struggles to understand itself in a new land' JULIA ALVAREZ
'Jennine Capo Crucet is a wonderful writer... wise and honest... furious and funny' LAUREN GROFF
'Jennine Capo Crucet is an electrifying new talent-she's funny, she's smart, and she knows how to tell great stories' CURTIS SITTENFELD
Failed Pitbull impersonator Ismael Reyes - you can call him Izzy - might not be the Scarface type, but why should that keep him from trying? Growing up in Miami has shaped him into someone who dreams of being the King of the 305, with the money, power, and respect he assumes comes with it. After finding himself at the mercy of a cease-and-desist letter from Pitbull's legal team and living in his aunt's garage-turned-efficiency, Izzy embarks on an absurd quest to turn himself into a modern-day Tony Montana.
When Izzy's efforts lead him to the tank that houses Lolita, a captive orca at the Miami Seaquarium, she proves just how powerful she and the water surrounding her really are -permeating everything from Miami's sinking streets to Izzy's memories to the very heart of the novel itself. What begins as Izzy's story turns into a super-saturated fever dream as sprawling and surreal as the Magic City, one as sharp as an iguana's claws, and as menacing as a killer whale's teeth. As the truth surrounding Izzy's boyhood escape from Cuba surfaces, the novel reckons with the forces of nature, with the limits and absence of love, and with the dangers of pursuing a tragic inheritance.
Wildly narrated and expertly rendered, Say Hello to My Little Friend is Jennine Capo Crucet's most daring, heart-breaking, and fearless book yet.
Praise for Jennine Capo Crucet
'This is definitely a young writer to watch for-sassy, smart, with an unerring ear for a community's voices, its losses, its over-the-top extravagances, and its poignant struggles to understand itself in a new land' JULIA ALVAREZ
'Jennine Capo Crucet is a wonderful writer... wise and honest... furious and funny' LAUREN GROFF
'Jennine Capo Crucet is an electrifying new talent-she's funny, she's smart, and she knows how to tell great stories' CURTIS SITTENFELD
Reviews / Votes
Crucet is an essential truth-teller, the whisper in your ear you should listen to, wise and funny as she tries to save your life-and this book is a triumph. -- ALEXANDER CHEE Jennine Capo Crucet is an electrifying new talent-she's funny, she's smart, and she knows how to tell great stories -- CURTIS SITTENFELD Jennine Capo Crucet is a wonderful writer... wise and honest... furious and funny -- LAUREN GROFF, author of Fates and Furies and Matrix I literally couldn't put this book down. Bold, surprising, moving and very funny. A story about the dreams and desires and histories buried inside our minds and bodies, our families and cities. Capo Crucet is a writer of immense talent and range -- Charles Yu, author of National Book Award Winner Interior Chinatown Say Hello to My Little Friend is superb. It's a rare thing to see a novelist so fully in control of such disparate elements. The voice is astonishing: wry, knowing, erudite, even metafictional when necessary, and the plot it relates is irresistible. This is high level world-building. So much so that it feels both wildly inventive but also like the kind of novel only an artist directly descending from immigrants to this country could birth, one that respectfully and skillfully transmutes the literary and historical past but always through the prism of our all-powerful American pop culture. The result is that truly rare object, a novel that helps us better sense that secret hum of art and love undergirding human existence -- Sergio de la Pava, award-winning author or A Naked Singularity and Lost Empress Say Hello to My Little Friend is a masterclass in pace and precision. Crucet can make you cry before you've even realized you've become invested and make you laugh even through the hurt. Brilliant -- Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, National Book Award Finalist of Chain Gang All Stars Both Ismael and the whale are singularly compelling characters, and both will break your heart. Unclassifiable and unforgettable. * Kirkus * A pacey, knowing, smartly insightful read that is laugh-out funny and desperately sad. * Marie Claire *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Quercus Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
214 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5294-1557-5 (9781529415575)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jennine Capó Crucet
Say Hello to My Little Friend
WINNER of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction
E-Book
03/2024
Quercus
€3.99
Available for download
Person
JENNINE CAPO CRUCET is the author
of four books, including the novel Make Your
Home Among Strangers, which won the
International Latino Book Award and was
named a New York Times Editors' Choice
book, and the multiple award-winning story
collection How to Leave Hialeah. Her essay
collection My Time Among the Whites: Notes
from an Unfi nished Education, based on her
columns in the New York Times, was longlisted
for the PEN Open Book Award. She is a
PEN/O. Henry Prize winner, and her writing
has appeared on PBS NewsHour, NPR, and in
The Atlantic, among other publications. Born
and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, she
now lives in North Carolina with her family.
of four books, including the novel Make Your
Home Among Strangers, which won the
International Latino Book Award and was
named a New York Times Editors' Choice
book, and the multiple award-winning story
collection How to Leave Hialeah. Her essay
collection My Time Among the Whites: Notes
from an Unfi nished Education, based on her
columns in the New York Times, was longlisted
for the PEN Open Book Award. She is a
PEN/O. Henry Prize winner, and her writing
has appeared on PBS NewsHour, NPR, and in
The Atlantic, among other publications. Born
and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, she
now lives in North Carolina with her family.