by Irving, John
First published 2015
Juan Diego boards a plane to the Philippines as an older man, but his most vivid experiences belong to his youth in Mexico. His dreams pull him backward through time to his childhood and teenage years, when fate first marked his path. The memories that accompany him across the Pacific feel more real than his present circumstances. In the Philippines, Juan Diego discovers that his past refuses to stay buried. The events that shaped him decades ago in Mexico now resurface to determine his future. Irving traces the mysterious links between what we remember and what we become. Juan Diego must confront how the chain of events from his early life connects to where he finds himself now. His journey becomes a collision between memory and destiny, between the boy he was and the man he has become.
Genres: literary-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Mexico, Philippines
Period: Childhood, Teenage Years
460 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster