In this lovingly told and poetic novel, she uses the storytelling art to give the voiceless ones a voice, and to find the border to the past, imbuing the struggles of her family and her countries with the richness of myth.” – Los Angeles Times 'Like Eduardo Galeano, John Dos Passos and John Steinbeck, Cisneros writes along the borders where the novel and social history intersect.

Soulful, sophisticated and skeptical, full of great one-liners, it is one of those novels that blithely leap across the border between literary and popular fiction.” – New York Times Book Review 'A glorious book, Caramelo is crowded with the souvenirs and memories of the dramas of everyday life.like an oversized family album, intimate as well as universal.'- The Philadelphia Inquirer Cisneros is undeniably at her peak.” – The Washington Post 'All the energy of a riotous family fiesta. The world of the 20th-century Mexican family, and of the Reyeses in particular, is as complicated, timeless, and satisfying as our own family stories. Although the book is long-over 400 pages plus a relevant U.S.-Mexico chronology-in many ways it's not long enough. Also an acclaimed poet, Cisneros writes fiercely and thoroughly, and her characters enter and exit the page with uncommon humanity.

Rich with sensory descriptions and animated conversations and peppered with Mexican cultural and historical details, this novel can hardly contain itself. Celaya gathers and retells, in over 80 chapters, the stories that reinforce her family's, and subsequently her own, identity as they travel between the U.S.-Mexican border and within the United States. armed forces, jobs upholstering furniture, and to Chicago and San Antonio. Pull one string and the whole thing comes undone.' The Reyes clan, from Awful Grandmother Soledad and her favorite son Inocencio to Celaya, follow their destinies from Mexico City to the U.S. And, like Celaya's grandmother's prized caramelo (striped) rebozo, so is 'the universe a cloth, and all humanity interwoven. Through the eyes of young Celaya, or Lala, the Reyes family saga twists and turns over three generations of truths, half-truths, and outright lies. Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros's first novel since her celebrated The House on Mango Street, weaves a large yet intricate pattern, much like the decorative fringe on a rebozo, the traditional Mexican shawl.

Book caramelo