The Best That You Can Do by Amina Gautier

The Best That You Can Do by Amina Gautier

WINNER of the International Latino Book Award * Midwest MLA Book Award * Florida Book Awards Silver Medal Winner * IPPY Book Award Silver Medal

Winner of the 2023 Soft Skull-Kimbilio Publishing Prize, a collection of short stories that elaborate the realities of a diasporic existence, split identities, and the beautiful potency of meaningful connections

Primarily told from the perspective of women and children in the Northeast who are tethered to fathers and families in Puerto Rico, these stories explore the cultural confusion of being one person in two places--of having a mother who wants your father and his language to stay on his island but sends you there because you need to know your family. Loudly and joyfully filled with Cousins, Aunts, Grandparents, and budding romances, these stories are saturated in summer nostalgia, and place readers at the center of the table to enjoy family traditions and holidays: the resplendent and universal language of survival for displaced or broken families.

Refusing to shy away from dysfunction, loss, obligation, or interrogating Black and Latinx heritages "If we flip the channels fast enough, we can turn almost anyone Puerto Rican, blurring black and white into Boricua." Gautier's stories feature New York neighborhoods made of island nations living with seasonal and perpetual displacement. Like Justin Torres' We the Animals, or Quiara Alegria Hudes' My Broken Language, it's the characters-in-becoming--flanked by family and rich with detail--that animate each story with special frequencies, especially for readers grappling split-identities themselves.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781593767587
ISBN 10	1593767587
Title	The Best That You Can Do
Author	Amina Gautier
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Soft Skull Press
Year published	2024-01-16
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.