First published 2024
Ana Magdalena Bach sits by the blue lagoon waters, watching men at the hotel bar. She has been married for twenty-seven years and built a good life with her husband and children. But every August, she takes the ferry to this Caribbean island where her mother lies buried. Here, for one night, she chooses a new lover. The ritual began innocently enough, yet each year Ana ventures deeper into uncharted territory. The island pulses with salsa music and boleros. Lotharios and conmen drift through the sultry evenings. Ana discovers parts of herself that her ordinary life keeps hidden. She confronts desires she never acknowledged and fears she cannot name. What started as a single transgression has become an annual pilgrimage into forbidden places of the heart.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, adult-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: forbidden-love, second-chance
Setting: Caribbean, Island
Period: August
144 pages · Hardcover · Knopf