Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago revolves around an extended family and the many trials and tribulations that occur both in the Bronx, New York and in Puerto Rico. This family is Puerto Rican and have many ties to the island. One of the main characters, Luz, is a ballerina whose dreams are shattered by a tragic car accident. During this accident both of her parents die. This is just one of the many subplots that the novel revolves around. There are three aunts , Las Madres, that take care of the extended family. A trip is planned to Puerto Rico so that the aunts can go back to see where their childhood memories occurred. During their visit to Puerto Rico there is a terrible hurricane that devastates the island. Supplies are extremely limited and much sadness and desperation occurs. As a reader following this story you will learn much about being a native of Puerto Rico and the day to day challenges that occur. Thank you to the author,NetGalley, and Alfred A. Knopf for allowing me to read and review this novel.

Who are we without our memories? How do we stay connected to each other? These questions are at the center of Esmerelda Santiago’s new novel, “Las Madres.” Here Santiago has accomplished what seems to be an impossible feat, centering a character with amnesia due to a traumatic brain injury. And though I initially wondered if Santiago could pull it off, by the end I was sorry to have doubted her. “Las Madres” is a magnificent novel.

Set in Puerto Rico and The United States, “Las Madres” tells the story of a woman called Luz. As the novel opens, she is a normal, if privileged, teenager who wants to be a dancer. But this quickly changes when she and her parents are in a horrific car accident. Both of her parents are killed, and Luz is alive but with terrible injuries. She spends time in a coma and, upon waking, discovers that her whole life has been turned upside down. She does not remember her life up to this point, and her short-term memory is also compromised.

Despite what has happened, Luz has a large support system around her, and readers follow her and her loved ones as Luz grows, leaves Puerto Rico, marries, has a child, and ultimately returns home in 2017, mere days before Hurricane Maria makes landfall.

There were many points in this story when I questioned Santiago’s writing choices. As far as I am aware, this is not, in terms of disability, an “own voices” text, and it would have been easy for Santiago to have written a story with simplistic and improbable solutions. I worried that perhaps the representation of Luz’s disability was problematic. (It may be for some. I do not claim to speak for the entire disability community.) Despite these potential pitfalls, though, I found “Las Madres” to be an incredibly compelling read. I may have had questions, but I needed to know what happened. And for this reason, I do not feel remiss in calling Santiago a singularly gifted writer.

Although Luz and I have different experiences, Santiago made me feel as if I understood her and her loved ones, and “Las Madres” is a work of incredible empathy.

Her narrative choices also show that she is a writer in perfect form, and “Las Madres” is not to be missed.

This review was originally printed in The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, VA.

“Las Madres” is a captivating take on identity, memory, loss, disability, family, love and healing.

This novel is narrated in a way that goes back and forth between the present and the past. On one hand, “Las Madres” follows a Puerto Rican teenage girl Luz, who has to learn how to live again after a terrible accident. We learn that before this event, Luz worked hard and strived to become a ballerina, while being black and tall, challenging the appearance stereotypes of a pale and petite classical dancer. Suffering a memory loss, Luz has to retrieve and piece her memories together mainly through the others and their stories. On the other hand, we get to know Luz a few decades after the accident - she is still struggling with memory loss, at the same time, she is now a mother and living in the United States in a supportive community with her adoptive mothers “las madres”, their daughter and her own daughter “las nenas”.

These two cleverly interwoven timelines provide a glimpse into the bigger picture. This works quite well up until two thirds of the novel, after which there is a shift in the narrative and overall feeling of this novel. From here it feels like the author decided to write a completely different work. I understand Santiago’s best intentions to convey a certain message, but the narration takes on an almost journalistic tone and the connection with the main premise feels very loose. Moreover, the characters and their relationships become rather flat as a result. I appreciate a felling of closure in the dénouement, yet the novel’s evocative intensity so promising in the beginning doesn't hold up. This feels a bit like a missed opportunity - I believe Santiago is a talented writer and this novel could have been excellent. Although I don’t work in the publishing industry and my opinion is one of an untrained reader, I feel this might have been an editing issue, not a writing issue per se.

Nevertheless, this novel was a positive reading experience for me, it put me on a train of thought about what makes up a family, how people support each other and unpredictable connections they make. Thanks to this novel, I learned about some important aspects of Puerto Rico’s history and culture, its complicated relationship with the US and its independence/statehood debate.

Another feature that I enjoyed is the way the author mixes English, Spanish, French and German in some dialogues - it may sound quite overwhelming for some readers, but it’s how some people who have been exposed to different languages might actually speak.

Esmeralda Santiago is a writer known for her narrative memoirs and trans-cultural writing, revolving around stories about migration, cultural dissonance and acculturation. In “Las Madres” , the author touches upon some of these themes - despite the struggles and challenges of leaving home and moving across the ocean, there are positive outcomes too. I’m interested in her narrative memoirs as well as her future work.

In addition, after reading this novel I discovered that in 2008 Esmeralda Santiago suffered a stroke which affected Wernicke’s area of her brain and made it unable to read and write in both Spanish, her native language, and English. The author had to relearn how to read and write anew - I really admire her strength and passion for the power of words.

Many thanks to Knopf who kindly provided me with an advanced reading copy via NetGalley.

3.5/5

Luz has trouble recalling her memories, a result from a traumatic experience in her teenage years. Along with her to Puerto Rico, she has her daughter, her two friends, and their daughter on this vacation, coming back to the land of where their roots are from. With the land being devastated with two concurrent hurricanes in a span of weeks, and them being able to experience the onslaught of the second, they try their best to overcome this tragedy as a community, stitching Luz’s missing memories, and unravelling well-kept secret.

The first half of the book mainly tackles about Luz’s condition, how she regrets not remembering memories before the accident, and how she mainly relies on other people’s words of who her parents were. She convinces herself that she is a burden to the people around her, the need to always repeat things until she retains the information. People think that her condition is a curse but also a blessing, that she would at least forget most of the ill events.

The second half discusses more about the state of Puerto Rico, the culture, the citizens, and the politics. The characters are thrown into the chaos of a disaster, fearing for their lives. The after effects of the hurricane does nothing to quell their anxiety, seeing that the place is indeed in a state of calamity.

I’ve never felt this strong of an attachment for a book, being vocal about my views and criticizing how real these events are. Definitely would recommend this book to anyone, and if I were to go back to high school, I’d definitely love to make a book report about it. Such a well-written book and I’m looking forward to more books from the author.

My review will mostly be relating their experiences and culture to that of my own, the Filipino culture. I saw many similarities between the two, especially when it comes to hurricanes. The Philippines has its fair share of storms and typhoons every year, that a typhoon was coincidentally raining over my city while reading this book. I will be tackling three main points for my review, Familial Ties, Nationalism, and Politics.

Familial Ties
There is a strong familial responsibility that Filipinos have, “utang na loob” or a debt of gratitude. It’s an unwritten rule that once a child becomes more independent, they are obligated to give back to their parents after all the sacrifices that the parents made. Filipino family gatherings are abundant, being able to meet second or even third cousins which leads to creating easier connections, somewhat akin to being a “nepo baby.” Relatives are ready to give a helping hand to those within the family, making an easier route by introducing one to an acquaintance.

Nationalism
It’s a widespread stereotype that Filipinos have a strong sense of Nationalism, always wanting to relate to any celebrity or artist who has even just an ounce of Filipino blood. Filipinos are also known for their resilience, most evident during donation drives where the citizens come together and help those heavily affected by tragedy. But the citizens can only give so much to the victims yet still do not expect anything in return; unlike politicians who hand out relief goods with their names and faces are plastered on the bag, hoping that this would lead them to winning the next elections.

Politics
Lastly, the corruption that circulates within the political circle. The country goes through an average of 20 typhoons every year, also earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are some of the disasters that plague the country. Poor planning and small fund allocation is set during states of calamities thus it takes a long time for a province or city to recover. All the promises that these politicians make during their campaigns don’t always make it to reality. It’s the citizens and NGO’s who come together to aid those in need, essentially taking the government’s job.

With successive typhoons raining down the country, Filipinos remain smiling even through the toughest of tragedies. Babangon tayo muli sa kahirapan basta’t tayo’y magtulungan. [We’ll stand back up from this tragedy as long as we help each other out.] A little help goes a long way.

A story through the decades of three women born in Puerto Rico who moved to New York and Maine in their late teens. The book mostly centers around Luz whose parents died in a horrific car accident that left her with memory and other medical issues as a young girl. There are many layers to this book filled with both heartbreak and joy. It is an ode to Puerto Rico and those Puerto Ricans who love it and long for it despite never having lived there.

A poignant novel full of love, family and the length one goes to find their identity. The heavy use of Spanish throughout and the lush descriptions of Puerto Rico immerses you in the feel of the story. The struggles women endure regarding their roles as mothers, daughters, partners, friends and finding their identity and place in the world is deftly portrayed with multi layered characters and a well rounded plot.

Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago, follows the life of Luz Peña Fuentes. Luz, tall, slender and dark skinned, had the impossible dream of becoming a ballerina. One night on the way home from a party held in honor of a guest ballet instructor, she loses both her parents in a terrible car accident. Luz survives the accident but is left afflicted by memory loss and dissociative spells. Las Madres is also the story of the circle of women who love and care for Luz. Luz’s daughter Marysol, Shirley, her wife Ada and their daughter Graciela. The novel is primarily told in two time lines, 1976 and 2017. We travel between the present and Luz’s diffuse and disjointed memories of the past. About midway, the story shifts when Las Madres y Las Nenas travel to Puerto Rico to celebrate Shirley’s 70th birthday. Secretly, they hope the trip will help Luz recapture her memory. It’s hard to say which misadventure hits them harder - Hurricane Maria or the family secrets they unearth.

Las Madres is more that just a story about the intimate relationships of these matriarchs and their daughters, it is an exploration of disability, healing from trauma, resilience, family secrets, sexuality, shame, politics and the long lasting effects of colonialism on the people of Puerto Rico. Santiago’s love for her people and heartbreak over their struggles is evident throughout her work.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a messy family, a story about the bonds that hold women together through adversity or wants a front row view into Puerto Rican culture.

**TWs - car crash, sexual assault, detailed exposition of a natural disaster

My thanks to the author @EsmeraldaSantiago48, @PantheonVintageAnchor and @NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I usually love Esmeralda Santiago's novels but I could not click with this one. I can't say why because the premise is so good and filled with opportunity--Luz is flown from San Juan to New York after a car accident kills her scientist parents and leaved her an orphan. Her life in New York will be much different than it was at home, more hardscrabble with the added element that she is a black Puerto Rican with all the prejudices that come along with it. She finds her way and makes some remarkable woman friends, the Madres of the title, culminating in their return to PR right before it is slammed by two mighty hurricanes.

3.5 stars. Esmeralda Santiago is a fine writer but this book seemed muddled. I'm still grateful to Knopf and NetGalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Las Madres seemed like a promising read from award-winning author Esmeralda Santiago. It takes us to 1975 when a 15-year Luz experiences the tragic loss of her brilliant parents and suffers a brain injury. The story goes back and forth from the past to current day in 2017, showing Luz’ journey. Las Madres is a group of women and their daughters that have built a friendship over some of the toughest circumstances.

Luz’s adult daughter Marysol is having a hard time connecting with her mother when she can barely remember her own life. In attempt to help, Ada and Shirley’s daughter Graciela plans a getaway to Puerto Rico where Las Madres grew up. Their hope is for it to be restorative, while instead they find themselves up against two disruptive hurricanes testing all of their fortitude. They also learn of a life-altering secret.

The book explores the effects of colonialism on the island and speaks loudly to the intricacy of politics that affect its residents negatively. Marysol takes a strong stance when given the opportunity to speak to a news crew in the aftermath of the hurricane.

While clearly, Santiago writes a heartfelt story exploring the depth of the relationship between these women, the ending fell a little flat. There was this hope that something would happen for Luz, or some development, but really it was hardship after hardship throughout her whole life. Which definitely happens in life, but just seemed like there was never any type of victory for the character. Or her daughter Marysol.

We’re taken through a series of events without a great amount of resolve. An intriguing story, but I think a little more story development for the characters could have been worthwhile. The alternating time periods can also often be tricky, and somehow those set in the past are a bit more intriguing than those set in 2017.

A moving novel about family, disability, and the bond between women.

The tragedies within these pages are heartbreaking, but handled deftly. At the center, Luz is like the sun the others orbit around.

As a whole, the book's pace is on the slow side, but this gives the reader time to settle in.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC! This was a highly affecting novel of a largely female Puerto Rican family consisting of both blood relatives and found family. This read somewhere between a novel and a memoir. It did not use plot devices that depended upon unlikely coincidence, but rather described events more or less as they would have happened. The book did not explore motives but expressed feeling and raw experience with great clarity.

The novel largely focuses on Luz, who loses much of her memory due to a disability. Unable to remember her own traumas, her family works hard to shield everyone else from them as well, even though it is doubtful that Luz herself would have made that choice. Puerto Rico provides the characters with an amazing extended family, but also creates a code of silence that impairs their relationships. This book is about a group of women trying to care for each other with great love under difficult circumstances but sometimes flawed technique. We should all be so lucky to have a family like this:). The descriptions of the island and the understanding of the culture are perfect.

Las Madres was an endearing window into a tight-knit matriarchal family in the Bronx and Puerto Rico. The family history was engaging, and I found the narrative of the family's experience through Hurricane Maria harrowing. Overall, some characters felt felt flat to me and the story dragged at points. Regardless Las Madres was a good summer read.

This is an intensely emotional book. Luz is an amazing character with so much strength after everything that has happened to her.
The writing is beautiful and kept me reading.
A beautiful story of family and resilience.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for a review.

"Las Madres" captures the essence of Esmeralda Santiago's early memoirs. The character traits and mannerisms are very true to the Hispanic culture that I couldn't help but smile while reading, and I loved how Santiago included topical incidents that makes you call back to where you were during them.

I was struck by each tragedy that hit and Santiago followed through with answering my questions throughout the book, like what is going to happen to Luz? Will she ever recover? How does she get by? Having Luz's brain injury due to the car accident as a part of the story rather than the entire plot allowed the book to have more depth. There are so many stories to tell and while Luz is at the center of it, you still get to know and love the people in her life.

When it came to detail, Santiago wrote Luz's condition with such expertise that it was easy for me to understand and follow. Her writing on Hurricane Maria was also gut-wrenching, horrifying, and emotional; immersing the reader into the characters' shoes.

I am so happy Esmeralda Santiago wrote this novel! Santiago is one of my favorite authors and I can't wait to get a physical copy in my hands.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing me a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

Las Madres is a stunning novel about family, identity, and unraveling trauma. I was enthralled and found the novel powerful and breathtaking.

We follow Luz, bouncing back and forth between the present (2017) and throughout her past — from when she lost both of her parents in a tragic accident that also left her with spots of amnesia. Esmeralda Santiago did a phenomenal job balancing the past and the present, never lingering too long in one place while giving us just enough information to continue on. I really enjoyed watching the past catch up with the present and seeing the information we learned in previous chapters catch up with our characters.

I also really appreciated the way she wove in Luz's medical condition — there were times where I was confused by actions only to realize this was something Luz had forgotten and we learned about it in time with her. I thought Santiago did brilliantly with it.

For me, one of the biggest reasons I loved this book was the obvious love poured into the characters and this story. In the intro, Santiago takes time to explain why she names almost all the characters — even if they are only in the story for a few pages. With every page, the love of Puerto Ricans and the island itself is obvious.

It's also there and Santiago is able to capture the horror of the hurricanes and the devastation. I found myself weeping during the later chapters — it's heartbreaking but so important to remember and to be forced to read.

But, I think that's what makes it so compelling. The love of Puerto Rico is the heart of Los Madres — it's these strong beautiful women working through their identity and who they have become/left behind, all influenced by where they grew up and who was around them.

This book is going to stick with me for a long time.

This book started slow but built to a very moving finish that left me thinking about memory, disability, family and the bonds between women.

I feel that I can’t say too much about the plot without getting into the territory of spoilers, but this novel follows two generations of Puerto Rican women - Luz, Ada and Shirley (las Madres) and Marysol and Graciela (las nenas) as they plan and go on a trip from the US where they now live back to Puerto Rico to reconnect with their roots. In the first half of this novel, Santiago carefully lays the groundwork for the things that happen in the second half.

The book opens with Liz as a teenager as we follow her through the tragedy that puts her life on a completely different trajectory. I was interested in this timeline but found myself more drawn towards the present-day timeline with “las nenas” more than Luz’s younger days, partly because Luz experiences so much trauma in the earlier timeline that those chapters felt a bit like something to get through (as maybe was intentional to mirror the way that Luz herself was feeling at that time).

Santiago writes moving descriptions of Puerto Rico, and I felt like I was there with the characters. The food, landscapes and vibes really came through the page in a way that made a place I’ve never been come alive for me. The scenes surrounding Hurricane Maria were heartbreaking and moving, and gave me a lot to reflect upon as an American who lives on the mainland.

This is a heavy book, and we see Luz and the other characters go through some very difficult things. However, at the center is a consistent theme of the love and support of a community and a group of women who hold each other up.

A very powerful but complicated story, Las Madres reflects the author’s love of Puerto Rico as seen through a nurturing female family. And several of Puerto Rico’s natural disasters highlight how they not only survive but do so with great style.

Luz is a very special Madre. Damaged in a car accident, she has no memory in the present but still accesses the past when she has “spells.” Three women care for her, and she greatly affects their lives. A trip they take from their home in New York to Puerto Rico brings all this to a head.

Luz’s condition and the fact that in her parents’ home four languages were spoken makes for difficult reading at times. The story is told alternately between two dates, and since there are a lot of people in the story (as one of the Madres says, everyone in Puerto Rico seems to be a cousin), it is hard to keep track of who is who and what happened to whom. Thank goodness for the list of characters at the beginning!

I especially admired the author’s great feeling for Puerto Rico and its people and their trials. Her portrayals of Luz as she seeks to understand the past and the present in the special way that only she can and of Marysol’s empathy for the medically needy, whether young or old, disabled or not, are very moving. Definitely recommended.

Luz is a teenager living in Puerto Rico with her parents, who are both scientists. which is considered surprising because they are black. (Apparently Puerto Rico also has racism.) On the way home from an event at her dance school, they are in a terrible automobile accident; both parents are killed, and Luz is seriously injured, not only physically, but also with a traumatic brain injury which allows her to remember nothing after a few minutes. At first she is cared for by her grandmother; then her grandfather takes her in and arranges for a tutor, Ada. Ada, who along with her partner Shirley and their daughter Graciela, becomes like family to Luz and her daughter Marysol, a nurse, who cares for her mother in their Bronx apartment. When the women decide to travel to Puerto Rico, they find themselves trapped there as Hurricane Maria descends. Secrets come to light as they and their neighbors struggle to survive. Santiago has crested unforgettable characters, and the description of the storm ravaged island is something I won't soon forget. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this advance copy.

Okay ... so where do I begin ... I'm struggling to review this as I was really hoping to have a more positive outlook on this one, I mean with the promise of family drama, secrets, history and culture - I was super excited to jump into this one . . .

This book was Okay? I guess ... I didn't hate it by any means, but was just expecting something a lot different going into it. I REALLY LOVED the whole setting and premise and as someone who loves exploring Spanish / South American culture I was quite excited for this one ... however I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed and honestly quite struggled to finish it. (It took me way longer than my average read would).

I felt that there were soo many characters , and dialogue in up to four (?) different languages (English, Spanihs, French and German!) too much of it became distracting and confusing enough so I couldn't really get into the story which sounded great initially.

I really wanted to love this one :( and hate that it didn't quite hit the mark for me this time unfortunately.

Thank you to Netgalley, Knopf & Esmerelda Santiago for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.