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A Cuban American family is sent into a tailspin when the ailing matriarch confesses the first of several shocking secrets to her daughter before undergoing heart surgery in this tender and twisty debut novel.
Monica Campo is pregnant with her first child when, moments before being wheeled into emergency heart surgery, her mother confesses a long-held secret: Monica’s father is not the man who raised her. But when her mother wakes up and begins having delusional episodes, Monica doesn’t know what to believe—whether the confession was real or just a channeling of the telenovela her mother watches nightly.
In her despair, Monica wants to speak with only one person: her ex-boyfriend of five years, Manny. She can’t help but worry, though, what this says about her relationship with her fiancé and father of her unborn child.
Monica’s search for the truth leads her to a new understanding of the past: the early eighties when her parents arrived from Cuba on the famous Mariel boatlift, and the tumultuous seventies, a decade after Castro’s takeover, when some people were still secretly fighting his regime—people like her mother and the man she claims is Monica’s real father. Tell It to Me Singing is a story that takes readers from Miami to Cuba to the jungles of Costa Rica and, along the way, explores the question of how and to whom we belong, how a life is built, and how we know when we’re home.
Praise and Reviews
“This debut novel addresses serious family matters but bursts with humor as well, thanks to Monica’s tart voice and her funny, fractious family.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Ramírez has created a charming novel in which the Spanish flows naturally and family affection flows warmly.”
— Booklist
“Riveting… As the story unfurls, Tell It to Me Singing develops into a deeply heartfelt, frequently humorous and historically germane exploration of how one family uses the combination of truth and love to heal from generational pain. A propulsive, heart-pumping and unexpected melodrama that is achingly human and bursting with love.”
— The Atlanta Journal Constitution
”The concept alone is brilliant—telenovela meets novel. The result is a book so fantastic and funny, so full of life, and so full of genuine heart that, like your favorite binge-worthy show, you’ll have trouble pulling yourself away.”
— Cristina Henríquez, author of The Great Divide
“Tita Ramírez’s Tell It to Me Singing is wondrous, a hilarious and wild examination of family, all the ways we struggle to understand the people who made us, and who we ultimately choose to hold on to. Ramírez effortlessly moves us through the twists and turns of a plot that jumps around the globe to uncover family secrets, but what makes the novel truly sing are Monica Campo and her mother, Mirta, funny and flawed and, like this book, utterly unforgettable.”
— Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
“Tender and heartfelt, Tita Ramírez has knocked it out of the park with Tell It to Me Singing, a gem of a novel about an unforgettable mother and daughter duo.”
— Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
