Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

THE 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2023 by Time Magazine #24

Flor Marte has three sisters: Matilde, Pastora, and Camila. She also has a daughter, Ona, and is an aunt to Yadi. These six women—each with a preternatural gift—build the beating heart of Family Lore. The novel, by National Book Award winner and Carnegie Medal recipient Elizabeth Acevedo, braids together chapters by each of the Marte women through the lens of Ona’s oral history project. Flor can see the future, mainly the deaths of those around her. So when she announces that she’s hosting a living wake, but doesn’t specify who it’s for, the family is aflutter. What could it mean? What has she seen? Flor is tight-lipped, but over the course of three days, secrets spill out into the oral history. The story is a study in inheritance, resilience, femininity, and the messy bonds of family love. —Laura Zornosa