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How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

by Angie Cruz

A life recounted after a job loss

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Regular price $28.49 USD Sale price $17.09 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Book club selection

    GMA Book Club Pick

    Identified in the supplied metadata as a GMA Book Club Pick.

  • Editorial selection

    The New York Times Editor’s Choice

    Identified in the supplied metadata as a New York Times Editor's Choice.

  • Critical praise

    Praise from The Washington Post

    Attributed praise calls the book's central character an endearing portrait of a fierce, funny woman.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A life recounted after a job loss

In her mid-50s, Cara Romero loses the factory job she expected to keep for life and enters the job market again during the Great Recession. Across twelve sessions with a job counselor, she tells the story of her life, bringing together work, debt, gentrification, and loss with the complicated ties she has to her neighbor Lulu, her sister Angela, and her estranged son, Fernando. The counseling sessions give Cara’s account a clear frame, while the subjects she revisits reach from love affairs and family tensions to secrets and regrets. Angie Cruz’s novel centers on a woman whose circumstances have changed sharply and on her effort to make sense of what came before.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in novels about work, unemployment, and financial strain.
  • Readers who enjoy character-focused stories shaped by family and neighbor relationships.
  • Readers drawn to fiction that explores gentrification, loss, and personal recollection.

Themes

Job loss and economic hardshipFamily relationships and estrangementGentrification and lossMemory, secrets, and regret

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE - A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK - REVIEWED ON THE FRONT COVER

From GMA BOOK CLUB PICK and WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana, an electrifying new novel about a woman who has lost everything but the chance to finally tell her story

"Will have you LAUGHING line after line...Cruz AIMS FOR THE HEART, and fires." --Los Angeles Times


"An endearing portrait of a FIERCE, FUNNY woman."
--The Washington Post

Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight.

Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz's most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.

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