For their run up to Printer’s Row Lit Fest in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune has been profiling writers who will be attending to promote their recent work. Cristina Henríquez is a Chicago-area fiction writer and author of the new novel “The Book of Unknown Americans.” When discussing the subject of immigration, the conversation can quickly become very heated along partisan lines. Henríquez wrote a book to do just the opposite - to the tell the quiet, human side of immigration.

1. Telling the American Story of
Immigrants in “The Book of
Unknown Americans.”

2. For their run up to Printer’s Row Lit Fest
in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune has
been profiling writers who will be
attending to promote their recent work.
Cristina Henríquez is a Chicago-area
fiction writer and author of the new novel
“The Book of Unknown Americans.”
When discussing the subject of
immigration, the conversation can
quickly become very heated along
partisan lines. Henríquez wrote a book
to do just the opposite - to the tell the
quiet, human side of immigration.
The book deals with a diverse group of
Latin American immigrants living in the
same apartment building in Delaware.
The two central characters, Arturo and
Alma Rivera, immigrate from Mexico to
enroll Maribel, the couple’s 15-year-old
daughter, into a special-needs school.
Mayor Toro is a naturalized citizen, born

3. in Panama, who falls for Maribel,
complicating the lives of all involved.
The Riveras immigration status lapses
from legal to illegal and Maribel is on the
receiving end of bullying, both of which
lend the novel its dramatic arc.
Henríquez, the daughter of a
Panamanian father who immigrated to
the U.S. in 1971 came to realize that
discussions of immigration never
extended to stories like her father’s. The
author of the 2009 novel "The World in
Half" and the 2006 short story collection
"Come Together, Fall Apart" felt that
some stories never get told, even
though they should. Despite the the
subject matter Henríquez she is not
particularly looking to wade into the
identity politics discussions that
surround writers like Junot Diaz.

4. "I go to see Junot, and he's talking
about identity politics," Henríquez says.
"I go to see Sherman Alexie, same
thing. It's what the audience wants them
to talk about, and they do. Then I go to
see George Saunders, and everybody
wants to talk to him about his writing. To
me, that's unfortunate. If those
conversations skew differently in the
future, I think that's a good thing."
To learn more about Henríquez’s work
and the autobiographical stories that
inspired it, check out the original article
at the Chicago Tribune.