We are excited to share two tremendous reviews for THE WAVES TAKE YOU HOME by María Alejandra Barrios Vélez that is set to be released by Amazon Publishing on March 19, 2024!
“Barrios Veléz offers a heartfelt and deeply personal debut novel… The Waves Take You Home is a beautiful homage to the values, traditions, and way of life of a small town and its families in Colombia.” – Booklist
Read the full review: https://www.booklistonline.com/The-Waves-Take-You-Home-Vlez-Mara-Alejandra-Barrios/pid=9789371
“Foodies will delight in the mouthwatering details of paella, pineapple upside-down rum cake, caramel flan, and sweet red wine in a charming novel.” – Library Journal
Read the full review:https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/the-waves-take-you-home-1806081
About the THE WAVES TAKE YOU HOME:
In this heartfelt story about how the places we run from hold the answers to our deepest challenges, the death of her grandmother brings a young woman home, where she must face the past in order to become the heir of not just the family restaurant, but her own destiny.
Violeta Sanoguera had always done what she was told. She left the man she loved in Colombia in pursuit of a better life for herself and because her mother and grandmother didn’t approve of him. Chasing dreams of education and art in New York City, and with a new love, twenty-eight-year-old Violeta establishes a new life for herself, on her terms. But when her grandmother suddenly dies, everything changes.
After years of being on her own in NYC, Violeta finds herself on a plane back to Colombia, accompanied at all times by the ghost of her grandmother who is sending her messages and signs, to find she is the heir of the failing family restaurant, the very one Abuela told her to run from in the first place. The journey leads her to rediscover her home, her grandmother, and even the flame of an old love.
About the author:
María Alejandra Barrios Vélez is a writer born in Barranquilla, Colombia. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of Manchester and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and scruffy dog, Gus.
She was the 2020 SmokeLong Flash Fiction Fellow, and her stories have been published in Shenandoah Literary, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, El Malpensante, Fractured Lit, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Offing, and more. Her work has been supported by organizations such as Vermont Studio Center, Caldera Arts, and the New Orleans Writers’ Residency.
The Waves Take You Home is María’s debut, inspired by the resilience and strength of the women in her family and the Caribbean city she spent most of her life in.
María Alejandra Barrios Velez is represented by Amanda Orozco.