The Cemetery of Untold Stories

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars | 452 ratings

Price: 15.04

Last update: 09-17-2024


About this item

Literary icon Julia Alvarez returns with an inventive and emotional novel about storytelling itself that will be an instant classic.

Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.

Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas, and the cemetery becomes a mysterious sanctuary for their true narratives. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener as Alma’s characters unspool their secret tales. Among them: Bienvenida, the abandoned second wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo, consigned to oblivion by history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States.

The characters defy their author: they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. The Cemetery of Untold Stories asks: Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Finally, Alma finds the meaning she and her characters yearn for in the everlasting vitality of stories.

Listeners of Isabel Allende’s Violeta and Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead will devour Alvarez’s extraordinary new novel about beauty and authenticity that reminds us the stories of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end.


Top reviews from the United States

madwoman in attic
5.0 out of 5 stars Among all-time favorites
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2024
While not for all readers, for me this was a great read. Better than great, superlative. I have un poco Spanish and I read it on Kindle -- which has a translate feature, this is a charming and beautifully written story. The old writer has stories untold and unfinished and she contrives to burn and bury them. They are not so easily dispatched and come to life in the telling in the garden of cemetery markers. It's worth the extra time to immerse into the bits of Spanish, do not be put off. I may start the second read today. I hope this novel takes home many prizes.
DJ
4.0 out of 5 stars A Celebration of the Power of Storytelling
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2024
“I should have known better, she said. Some stories don’t want to be told.” (p15)

This book is a celebration of the power of storytelling – to build community, make sense of our lives, and provide much-needed catharsis. It’s also a poignant and sometimes raw look at the lives of migrants, exiles, and others who are marginalized or threatened (in an interesting twist, several of the vulnerable characters are relatively well off financially). The prose is wonderful, especially if you’re comfortable with (or willing to work through) a modest amount of Spanish and Spanglish.

This isn’t a book in which storytellers sit around a campfire regaling each other. Much of it is more like a séance: some light-touch magical realism enables those who listen carefully to hear the stories of those who are physically absent.

There are some tantalizing mysteries, but few surprises. Some of the events, especially a significant tragedy that’s central to the plot, struck me as a bit of a stretch. But all of this is forgivable. Suspend disbelief and soak in this wonderful story about stories told and untold.
S. Smith
3.0 out of 5 stars High Expectations Led to Disappointment
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2024
This book seemed perfect—magical realism, writer as protagonist, lots of unfinished stories, and a cemetery setting—but it turned out to be a disappointment.

The story itself is unique: Alma Cruz, a famous writer and university professor, is nearing the twilight stage of her life. Her books aren’t selling as well as they once did, she’s tired of teaching, and she hasn’t had any new ideas in a long time. Worst of all, the boxes and boxes of scribbled notes and ideas for all the books she never wrote are haunting her, and she wants them to rest in peace.

She returns to her native Dominican Republic, purchases a plot of land, and builds a story cemetery. She plans to burn the boxes and bury the ashes under the particular “tombstone” her artist friend has constructed specifically for each box. Two refuse to burn: one with notes about Bienvenida, the abandoned wife of the dictator Rafael Trujillo and the other with stories of her own “Papi,” a young doctor who fought in the underground against Trujillo and escaped to the United States. Things don’t go as planned, and none of the stories will shut up. She hires a local woman, Filomena, as the cemetery caretaker, and before she knows what’s happening, Filomena becomes the confidante of the dead.

A big problem I had with the book was its use of the Spanish language without explanation. Context seldom helped, so I spent almost as much time googling definitions as reading. I finally gave up. Then, too, was the slew of secondary characters who mostly all turned out to be connected in various ways. I love the idea of connectedness, but the storyline reminded me of an alternate (and endless) game of “the six degrees of Kevin Bacon.” Because I felt no real connection with any of the characters, my mind wandered as I read, and I missed the philosophical implications of whose stories get told and whose don’t.

Because my overly high expectations played a big role in why the book wasn’t a hit for me, I’m being a bit generous and giving it three stars.
SoCal
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a book I will remember reading
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2024
Wow. Strong characters. Strong writing. Seamlessly moves between timelines and families connecting one protagonist to another without a hitch.
Marion Hurt
4.0 out of 5 stars good book, I wish I spoke Spanish though
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2024
Interesting concept, uncompleted stories still have a life and a need to share those stories.
I really needed to understand Spanish as some was translated for us but not all.
TrendySimpleLife
5.0 out of 5 stars Read it. You can thank me later!
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2024
“Eventually, storied and unstoried join in mystery. Nothing holds anyone together but imagination.”

I have no words.
As a reader, I loved this book and Alvarez storytelling, and I’m afraid I can’t express my feelings well enough in words here.
The magical realism part of this tale within tales was just the cherry on top for my vivid imagination and at times it became so deeply philosophical that it made me think about life.
Taya Fagan
3.0 out of 5 stars Magical Realism
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2024
I gave this one 3⭐️ I felt it was all over the place with its story line.
The biggest issue for me was the absence of chapters to differentiate whose life I was reading about. Made it confusing at times. This book is divided up into 4 parts. That’s it. There were also several Spanish words and phrases that needed to be translated because the author never said what it actually meant. It was aggravating because it was important to the story line. Overall the book was ok.

I wouldn’t recommend unless you were specifically looking for this specific type of book.
Kathy herndon
4.0 out of 5 stars Loved the way the characters’ stories intertwined
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2024
Lovely read

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