Liliana's Invincible Summer: A Sister's Search for Justice

4 4 out of 5 stars | 449 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 11-25-2024


About this item

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK “A searing account of grief and the quest to bring her sister’s murderer to justice years after the fact” (The Boston Globe), from “one of Mexico’s greatest living writers” (Jonathan Lethem).

“Part memoir, part true-crime story, Garza’s chronicle is both personal and political.”—The Washington Post

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, Time, Chicago Public Library, She Reads, Electric Lit

October 18, 2019. Cristina Rivera Garza travels from her home in Texas to Mexico City, in search of an old, unresolved criminal file. “My name is Cristina Rivera Garza,” she writes in her request to the attorney general, “and I am writing to you as a relative of Liliana Rivera Garza, who was murdered on July 16, 1990.” It’s been twenty-nine years. Twenty-nine years, three months, and two days since Liliana was murdered by an abusive ex-boyfriend. Inspired by feminist movements across the world and enraged by the global epidemic of femicide and intimate partner violence, Cristina embarks on a path toward justice. Liliana’s Invincible Summer is the account—and the outcome—of that quest.

In luminous, poetic prose, Rivera Garza tells a singular yet universally resonant story: Liliana is a spirited, wondrously hopeful young woman who tried to survive in a world of increasingly normalized gendered violence. Rivera Garza traces her sister’s history, depicting everything from Liliana’s early romance with a handsome but possessive and short-tempered man to that exhilarating final summer of 1990 when she loved, thought, and traveled more widely and freely than she ever had before.

Using her skills as an acclaimed scholar, novelist, and poet, Rivera Garza collected and curated evidence—handwritten letters, police reports, school notebooks, interviews with Liliana’s loved ones—to document her sister’s life. Through this remarkable and genre-defying memoir, she confronts the trauma of losing her sister and examines how this tragedy continues to shape who she is—and what she fights for—today.


Top reviews from the United States

joshua bryan
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking but beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2024
It is unlike any non fiction I’ve ever read, it is very poetic and fragmented, but also intimate and revealing. If you’re into salacious true crime, this is not that. Cristina Rivera Garza is an adept writer and crafted an amazing tribute to her sister. And crafted it is, the several points of view, you get to know her sister Liliana as a whole person. Just beautiful
mags87
4.0 out of 5 stars A powerful story of a search for answers
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2023
Liliana’s Invincible Summer explores the facts of Garza’s sister’s life and murder in such a poetic, beautiful way. You can feel the love and pain of the author in every single word. I liked how the story was told through descriptions, interviews, letters, and pictures. While this is technically in the category of true crime, it was so heartfelt and poetic. It is a beautiful tribute to a beloved sister’s life an the critique of the system that has failed to bring her justice.
English prof
3.0 out of 5 stars Hoping for better
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2024
I wanted to love this book. I am a University of Houston grad—albeit many years ago—and I was pleased to see that someone from my alma mater had won a Pulitzer. However, I found much of the book, those pages taken up by Liliana’s writing, indecipherable. While I think I understand the author’s urgent need to preserve her sister’s thoughts, I felt many of those pages, reprinted in a thin, slanted font, just didn’t make sense. (I did wonder if my inability to fully grasp their meaning is due to cultural differences.) Cristina Rivera Garza’s own writing is lyrical and beautiful. I especially admire the first chapter that so eloquently captures the frustration of wading through mindless bureaucracy and paperwork. And the final chapters that so beautifully portray the anguish of grief. But in the middle, I wondered if she didn’t rely too heavily on a single source (Snyder’s book) about abused women. Surely she did other research? All in all, this book was a mixed bag for me.
gcatrew
5.0 out of 5 stars Añorar
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2024
Having experienced familial death almost similar to that of Liliana, I can say that this book is triggering. However, that shouldn’t stop anyone from reading it. What those around us are unable to do when offering empathy is what the author, Cristina Rivera Garza, executes masterfully. She articulates the sense of loss, confusion, despair, and horror that many of us have felt (and likely continue to feel) as we grieve our loved ones.

As I read this book, I relived my own experiences and wondered how or in what way could they be scrutinized to achieve justice for the ongoing femicide.
Henrietta Fromm
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, thought provoking memoir on an important subject
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2024
This is such a gorgeously written and poetic tribute to the author’s sister who died at the hands of an ex-boyfriend. This kind of murder has a name now – called femicides in Mexico. This memoir really puts a spotlight on the fact that police investigations and the general public attitudes towards “femicides” have not changed that much since this unsolved case in 1990. Overall I thought this memoir was thought provoking, and deeply sad to contemplate on the women who have died at the hands of their ex-partners. As the author points out, these types of killings happen in the US and Canada too, but in Mexico, complete impunity for the murderer runs rampant as does any real empathy or protection for the victims.
Kaelen Corona
5.0 out of 5 stars tragic, haunting, beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2024
Cristina Rivera Garza ties shame and guilt with grief in a way I, and many of us have felt, but have not, could not - articulate. I will think about Cristina and Liliana’s beautiful words forever. Justice for Liliana and for all the women and girls TAKEN from this world.
Ashley
2.0 out of 5 stars very haphazard style of writing
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2023
It just really wasn’t my kind of book. The writing style seemed very haphazard to me and hard to follow.
suki
3.0 out of 5 stars Maybe if I was from Mexico City?
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2024
To be honest it was a DNF, It was hard for me to find flow with the writing style. It is an important read I just wasn't up for it. A played out topic that I am well educated on. Would probably interest a Gen Z who has never thought about these things though.

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