The Affairs of the Falcóns

Starred review from January 1, 2019

DEBUT With no intention of jeopardizing her marriage, Ana does just that while trying to start a new life with her family in New York City. Eager to leave behind Peru, with its prejudices and lack of opportunity, she gets a job as a seamstress in a factory while husband Lucho drives a cab. Their two young children become friends with Michael, the son of Lucho's relatives Valeria and Ruben, with whom they are living. Having little money, no green cards, and in fact no legitimate documents, they have few options. The extended family's small apartment is crowded, and Valeria's insecurities cause serious problems for Ana. These issues become a major threat to Ana's dream when Valeria demands they move out. The ambitious Ana attempts singlehandedly to face Valeria's temper, her family's constantly increasing debts, an unwanted pregnancy, and the ever-present fear of deportation. VERDICT Rivero's talent for storytelling and sympathetic portrayal of many characters propels this novel above the melodrama of the telenovelas that play in the background on Valeria's television. Book groups will thoroughly enjoy this vivid, inspired debut, a valuable addition to immigration literature. [See Prepub Alert. 10/14/18.]--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

February 1, 2019
A nuanced look at the human cost of immigration policy.It's New York in the 1990s. Ana Falcón works as a seamstress. Her husband, Lucho, is driving a cab. Along with their two small children, the Falcóns are living with Lucho's cousin's family. The pressures--personal, financial--that Ana faces will be recognizable to most readers, but the fact that the Falcóns are undocumented immigrants adds a layer of complexity and peril to every choice they make. Ana and Lucho are limited in the kinds of jobs they can find and vulnerable to employers willing to hire workers illegally. Housing is hard to come by, and they know that their welcome with extended family is not indefinite. With no access to banks, they are forced to do business with loan sharks. Rivero offers a portrait of the immigrant experience that will undoubtedly ring true to many, but she also writes with great specificity. She offers insight into the economic and political instability that drove Ana and Lucho to leave Peru, and she depicts the ways in which class and race factor into the lives of the Falcóns. Ana's background is rural and indigenous. Terrorists and soldiers were a threat to her and her mother. Lucho's family is from Lima, and these differences color Ana's relationship with Lucho's cousin Valeria. Ana is a very well-crafted protagonist, sympathetic but not perfect. Her situation is circumscribed, but Rivero gives her considerable agency--including the freedom to make dubious choices. This is, obviously, a book that has a lot to say to our current moment, but it also has an emotional appeal that is timeless and universal.Thoughtful and eye-opening, this is an admirable debut.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 15, 2019
So much public discourse around undocumented immigrants in the U.S. fixates on polar opposites, whether these individuals are exalted as DREAMers or demonized as serial criminals. In this timely and beautifully rendered debut novel, Rivero unpacks the complexities faced by Ana Falc�n and her family, Peruvian immigrants who must navigate the unforgiving urban terrain of New York City in the 1990s. Whether it's the long hours Ana works on a factory line, or the exhaustion of Lucho, her husband, the Falc�ns struggle to make ends meet and survive, let alone thrive, with few resources. And Rivero succeeds in drawing to light the challenges many new immigrants face even from within their own scant support networks. While the Falc�ns may be lucky to occupy a single room in the apartment of Lucho's cousin Valeria, she lambastes Ana every chance she gets. Even an elderly Cuban woman, called Mama, who has extended a line of credit to Ana, has no problem spouting casual colorism and enforcing usurious interest rates. A complex and compelling portrait of Latin American immigrants and the experience of undocumented families.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)