We Recommend: Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

This wonderful book is the story of Antonia Vega, a recently retired professor of English, her three adult sisters, one of whom has gone missing, and a pregnant Mexican teen miigrant in rural Vermont. It moves quietly with compassion and candor as Antonia struggles with these present day issues in her life. Julia Alvarez's writing is beautiful. The parts that involve Antonia and her siblings are especially so. The story is at times sad, but there is humor as well. I loved Julia Alvarez's "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" and "In the Time of the Butterflies", and I loved "Afterlife"', too.