Family Lore

National Book Award–winning YA author Acevedo (Clap When You Land) narrates most of her adult fiction debut with bilingual fluency and mellifluous rhythms; she’s briefly joined by Sixta Morel and Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe, who perform five brief interludes. Character by memorable character, Acevedo unfolds the intertwined lives of a Dominican American family, about to gather for the wake of one of their own. Flor, the second Marte sister, who can see death before it arrives, insists there’s no reason for urgency. She’s just been inspired by a documentary about a living wake and wants to plan her own. Leading up to the magnificent event, Acevedo unspools glimpses into three generations: coldly controlling Mamá; kindly oldest sister Matilde; her philandering husband Rafa; truth-knowing third sister Pastora; privileged youngest sister Camila; and Pastora’s daughter Yadi, who is considering her newly returned first love. Flor’s daughter Ona—the only Marte to whom Acevedo grants first-person narration—serves as the family’s anthropologist. That Ona’s interviews with each of the four sisters (liltingly enlivened by Morel) and cousin Yadi (Rodriguez del Orbe’s single, resolute reading) are not voiced by Acevedo cleverly bestows these women with agency over their stories.