Tell It to Me Singing
A Novel
Published on 9. July 2024
400 pages
978-1-9821-5733-3 (ISBN)
Description
An "utterly unforgettable" (Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here) debut novel about a Cuban American family sent into a tailspin when the ailing matriarch confesses the first of several shocking secrets to her daughter.
Mónica Campo is pregnant with her first child when, moments before being wheeled into emergency heart surgery, her mother confesses a long-held secret: Mónica's father is not the man who raised her. But when her mother wakes up and begins having delusional episodes, Mónica doesn't know what to believe?whether the confession was real or just a channeling of the telenovela her mother watches nightly.
In her despair, Mónica wants to speak with only one person: her ex-boyfriend of five years, Manny. She can't help but worry, though, what this says about her relationship with her fiancé and father of her unborn child.
Mónica's search for the truth leads her to a new understanding of the past?the early '80s, when her parents arrived from Cuba on the famous Mariel boatlift, and the tumultuous '70s, a decade after Castro's takeover, when some people were still secretly fighting his regime?people like her mother and the man she claims is Mónica's real father.
Tell It to Me Singing is "so fantastic and funny, so full of life, and so full of genuine heart that, like your favorite binge-worthy show, you'll have trouble pulling yourself away" (Cristina Henríquez, author of The Great Divide). This "rich portrait" (Kirkus Reviews) of a family takes readers from Miami to Cuba to the jungles of Costa Rica and, along the way, explores the question of how and to whom we belong, how a life is built, and how we know we're home.
Mónica Campo is pregnant with her first child when, moments before being wheeled into emergency heart surgery, her mother confesses a long-held secret: Mónica's father is not the man who raised her. But when her mother wakes up and begins having delusional episodes, Mónica doesn't know what to believe?whether the confession was real or just a channeling of the telenovela her mother watches nightly.
In her despair, Mónica wants to speak with only one person: her ex-boyfriend of five years, Manny. She can't help but worry, though, what this says about her relationship with her fiancé and father of her unborn child.
Mónica's search for the truth leads her to a new understanding of the past?the early '80s, when her parents arrived from Cuba on the famous Mariel boatlift, and the tumultuous '70s, a decade after Castro's takeover, when some people were still secretly fighting his regime?people like her mother and the man she claims is Mónica's real father.
Tell It to Me Singing is "so fantastic and funny, so full of life, and so full of genuine heart that, like your favorite binge-worthy show, you'll have trouble pulling yourself away" (Cristina Henríquez, author of The Great Divide). This "rich portrait" (Kirkus Reviews) of a family takes readers from Miami to Cuba to the jungles of Costa Rica and, along the way, explores the question of how and to whom we belong, how a life is built, and how we know we're home.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Tita Ramírez grew up in Miami, the daughter of a Cuban exile and a Kentucky native. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in LitHub, The Normal School, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and their two sons, and teaches creative writing at Elon University. Tell It to Me Singing is her debut novel.
