by Angie Cruz
First published 2024
Cara Romero expected to spend her career making small lamps at the same factory. When the Great Recession hits, she finds herself unemployed in her mid-fifties and sitting across from a job counselor. Instead of discussing her resume, Cara begins telling the story of her life. Across twelve sessions, she reveals her passionate romantic relationships, her complicated friendship with neighbor Lulu, her fraught bond with sister Angela, and her financial struggles as her neighborhood changes around her. She talks about debt, about watching her community transform, about the losses that have shaped her. But the hardest story to tell involves her son Fernando and the rift that separates them. As Cara opens up about her deepest regrets and closely guarded secrets, she discovers reserves of strength she didn't know she possessed. Each session peels back another layer of a woman who has been knocked down repeatedly but refuses to stay down. Through Cara's voice, we see someone determined to survive whatever life throws at her.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Great Recession
Period: mid-fifties
208 pages · Paperback · John Murray Publishers Ltd
Content warnings: depression, mental-illness