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Anna In-Between

Name: Anna In-Between
Author: Elizabeth Nunez
ISBN: 9781936070695

by Nunez, Elizabeth

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Overview

"A psychologically and emotionally astute family portrait, with dark themes like racism, cancer and the bittersweet longing of the immigrant."
--New York Times Book Review (Editors Choice)

"Nunez has created a moving and insightful character study while delving into the complexities of identity politics. Highly recommended."
--Library Journal (*starred review*)

"Nunez deftly explores family strife and immigrant identity in her vivid latest . . . with expressive prose and convincing characters that immediately hook the reader."
--Publishers Weekly (*starred review*)

"Nunez offers an intimate portrait of the unknowable secrets and indelible ties that bind husbands and wives, mothers and daughters."
--Booklist

"The award-winning author of Prospero's Daughter has written a novel more intimate than her usual big-picture work; this moving exploration of immigrant identity has a protagonist caught between race, class and a mothers love."
--Ms. Magazine

"Probing and lyrical, this fantastic novel is one of Nunez's best yet."
--Edwidge Danticat

ANNA IN-BETWEEN is Elizabeth Nunez's finest literary achievement to date. In spare prose, with laserlike attention to every word and the juxtaposition of words to each other, Nunez returns to her themes of emotional alienation, within the context of class and color discrimination, so richly developed in her earlier novels.

Anna, the novel's main character, who has a successful publishing career in the U.S., is the daughter of an upper-class Caribbean family. While on vacation in the island home of her birth she discovers that her mother, Beatrice, has breast cancer. Beatrice categorically rejects all efforts to persuade her to go to the U.S. for treatment, even though it is, perhaps, her only chance of survival.

Elizabeth Nunez is an award-winning author of seven novels. She is a distinguished professor at Hunter College, CUNY, and divides her time between Amityville, New York, and Brooklyn.

About the Author, Elizabeth Nunez

Elizabeth Nunez: Elizabeth Nunez is an award-winning author of seven novels, including Prospero’s Daughter (New York Times Editors' Choice) and Bruised Hibiscus (American Book Award). She is coeditor with Jennifer Sparrow of the anthology Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad. She is a distinguished professor at Hunter College, CUNY, and divides her time between Amityville, New York and Brooklyn.

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Editorials

Amy Finnerty

The title of her latest novel suggests a sit-com, or the upbeat identity lit marketed to teenagers. But Elizabeth Nunez layers Anna In-Between, a psychologically and emotionally astute family portrait, with dark themes like racism, cancer and the bittersweet longing of the immigrant. Foremost, she explores the late innings of a successful marriage, in which husband and wife cling together in the shadow of mortality.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Nunez deftly explores family strife and immigrant identity in her vivid latest. When Anna Sinclair, a New York City book editor, takes a vacation to her parents' home in the Caribbean, she discovers that her mother, Beatrice, has advanced breast cancer. Beatrice rejects all suggestions that she be treated in the U.S.—she believes that, as a black woman, she'll receive second-rate care—leaving Anna and her father, John, to tread lightly between respecting Beatrice's wishes and steering her toward what is best for her. As a prominent black family on a largely white island, the Sinclairs are used to straddling two worlds, and Anna's mother's fears cause Anna to examine her thoughts about race. “Fiction best achieves the universal through the specific. It is by telling stories that are plausible, about characters who are believable, that the writer eases us in to exploring the many facets of the human condition,” Anna thinks at one point. Nunez meets these guidelines and more with expressive prose and convincing characters that immediately hook the reader. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Anna Sinclair is a senior editor for an imprint at a prominent New York publishing company. Although she had left the Caribbean island where she grew up to attend college and then settle in the United States, she routinely returns to visit her parents. During one lengthy stay her mother, Beatrice, reveals that she has a large tumor in her breast. While Beatrice begins treatments for cancer, Anna and her father attempt to persuade her to have surgery in the United States, but she flatly refuses. During her weeks at her parents' home, Anna finds herself increasingly conflicted by both her parents' culture and her adopted one. She does not identify with her parents' upper-class status on the island, but she does not feel American either. Further, she is mystified by her parents' complete dedication to each other while her own marriage ended in divorce. VERDICT Nunez, an award-winning author of seven novels (e.g., Prospero's Daughter), has created a moving and insightful character study while delving into the complexities of identity politics. Highly recommended for fiction collections.—Cristella Bond, Anderson P.L., IN