Bøger af Nancy Alvarez

Though sensuality is the center of this novel, 'Tingle' also explores the lives and histories of its main characters - Michael, a black librarian in New York City and Sara, a woman who has recently lost her husband of over fifteen years. The two meet at the library, where he has been suggesting novels for her to read for several years. When he notices that she seems sad, he learns that her husband has passed away, He immediately suggests they go for coffee when he gets off work that afternoon. And so it begins, much to the surprise of both of them. He has never even dated a white woman, and she never thought she would begin to love another man. Their shared sensuality is the door into something much deeper than either expected. The author couldn't help exploring racial aspects in the novel, as well as the sexual and personal ones.

A well-known writer returns to her high school to thank her English teacher, Jen, for all she learned about the craft of writing from her. A strong bond develops between the two women who quickly discover similarity in their family histories. The two agree on an intriguing concept: creating a novel about a poor immigrant family from the Polish Ukraine juxtaposed with a family from upper middle class, cultured Vienna. The 'novel' takes teenaged Adelaide from performing with Enrico Caruso in Vienna to New York, where her parents send her so that she might have a 'normal' life in an arranged marriage with gregarious Simon. There she struggles to find a literal voice for herself while fulfilling her duties as his wife and the mother of their two daughters. Unfortunately, Simon suffers an early death in the bed of another woman, and Ruth, the younger daughter, has to give up her studies at Hunter College, which completely changes the trajectory of her life. Mishpocheh also follows Yetta and Noah Unger from their tiny shtetl in the Ukrainian countryside to New Jersey, where they believe they will find a better life for their growing family. We only learn how the lives of these two disparate families will intersect at the end of the novel. The book spans several generations of both families.

"Little Nancy: the Journey Home" is one woman's journey back into the childhood she thought she had left far behind, to find the delighted child she had once been because she feared she had lost her forever. Not only did she find that little girl, she was able to integrate her spirit into the life of the adult woman she had become. To help other women begin the same journey, the author has included a fourteen page workbook with questions, chapter by chapter, so that they might walk a similar path.