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Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * A year in the life of the unforgettable Catalina Ituralde, a wickedly wry and heartbreakingly vulnerable student at an elite college, forced to navigate an opaque past, an uncertain future, tragedies on two continents, and the tantalizing possibilities of love and freedom

"[A] sparkling fiction debut."--The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
"[A] fresh and unflinching take on the campus novel."--People (Ten Best Books of the Year)
"Diabolically charming and magnetic."--Ira Glass

FINALIST FOR THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, them


When Catalina is admitted to Harvard, it feels like the fulfillment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented grandparents, and becomes one of the chosen. But nothing is simple for Catalina, least of all her own complicated, contradictory, ruthlessly probing mind. Now a senior, she faces graduation to a world that has no place for the undocumented; her sense of doom intensifies her curiosities and desires. She infiltrates the school's elite subcultures--internships and literary journals, posh parties and secret societies--which she observes with the eye of an anthropologist and an interloper's skepticism: she is both fascinated and repulsed. Craving a great romance, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student, an actual budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation. Can she save her family? Can she save herself? What does it mean to be saved?

Brash and daring, part campus novel, part hagiography, part pop song, Catalina is unlike any coming-of-age novel you've ever read--and Catalina, bright and tragic, circled by a nimbus of chaotic energy, driven by a wild heart, is a character you will never forget.
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio has written about immigration, music, beauty, and mental illness for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Glamour, Elle, Vogue, n+1, and The New Inquiry, among others. She lives in New Haven with her partner and their dog.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780593449097
Title Catalina
Author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Random House USA Inc
Year published 2024-07-23
Number of pages 224
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.