Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Make Your Home Among Strangers
    Make Your Home Among Strangers
    Make Your Home Among Strangers
    Audiobook14 hours

    Make Your Home Among Strangers

    Written by Jennine Capó Crucet

    Narrated by Marisol Ramirez

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Lizet, a daughter of Cuban immigrants and the first in her family to graduate from high school, secretly applies and is accepted to an ultra-elite college. Her parents are furious at her decision to leave Miami, and amid a painful divorce, her father sells her childhood home, leaving Lizet, her mother, and older sister, a newly single mom-without a steady income and scrambling for a place to live. Amidst this turmoil, Lizet begins college, but the privileged world of the campus feels utterly foreign to her, as does her new awareness of herself as a minority. Struggling both socially and academically, she returns home for a Thanksgiving visit, only to be overshadowed by the arrival of Ariel Hernandez, a young boy whose mother died fleeing with him from Cuba on a raft. The ensuing immigration battle puts Miami in a glaring spotlight, captivating the nation and entangling Lizet's entire family. Pulled between life at college and the needs of those she loves, Lizet is faced with hard decisions that will change her life forever. Her urgent, mordantly funny voice leaps off the page to tell this moving story of a young woman torn between generational, cultural, and political forces; it's the new story of what it means to be American today. Jennine CapO Crucet is the author of Make Your Home Among Strangers and a story collection, How to Leave Hialeah, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, John Gardner Book Prize, Devil's Kitchen Reading Award, and named a Best Book of the Year by the Miami Herald and the Latinidad List. A PEN/O. Henry Prize winner and Bread Loaf Fellow, she was a Picador Guest Professor at the University of Leipzig, Germany. She was raised in Miami and still writes and teaches in Florida.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9781490684413
    Make Your Home Among Strangers
    Author

    Jennine Capó Crucet

    Jennine Capó Crucet is the author of four books, including the novel Make Your Home Among Strangers, which won the International Latino Book Award and was cited as a best book of the year by NBC Latino, The Guardian, The Miami Herald, and others; the story collection How to Leave Hialeah, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize and the John Gardner Book Award; and the essay collection My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education, which was long-listed for the PEN/Open Book Award. A former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, she’s a recipient of a PEN/O. Henry Prize and the Hillsdale Award for the Short Story, awarded by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Her writing has appeared on PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, and in publications such as The Atlantic, Condé Nast Traveler, and others. She’s worked as a professor of ethnic studies and of creative writing, as a college access counselor for the One Voice Scholars Program, and as a sketch comedienne (though not all at the same time). Born and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, she lives in North Carolina with her family.

    More audiobooks from Jennine Capó Crucet

    Related to Make Your Home Among Strangers

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for Make Your Home Among Strangers

    4/5

    52 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is a powerful and piercing book. It has energized me to integrate it into my classroom curriculum this semester. I have lots to chew on.
    • 2/5
      The Short of It:A young woman is pulled between her family at home, her studies at school, and the political turmoil over the forcible removal of a young Cuban boy and his return to his father back in Cuba.The Rest of It:Many of you may recall the story of Elián González. He was the center of an international custody battle back in 2000. Make Your Home Among Strangers includes a fictionalized account of his story in the form of Ariel Hernandez.Lizet is the first in her family to attend college but when she announces her acceptance, she is met with disappointment. Her sister just found out she is pregnant and Lizet’s mother was just left by her husband and the house has been sold out from under her. No one in the family is happy about this turn of events but Lizet is curious about a life outside of what she knows and goes, leaving some bad feelings behind.At school, Lizet struggles. The schooling she’s had prior to college did not prepare her for the rigorous work that is expected of her. Her ties to home and the guilt she has over not helping her sister during this time, cause her to visit home often which confuses her more.In the midst of all this, Lizet’s mother has joined with others to protest the removal of Ariel Hernandez. He lost his mother leaving Cuba and they feel that since he made it to the US, that he should be allowed to stay but the possibility of his removal looms large as the rest of the story unfolds.This was a quick, one-two punch of a read. Crucet’s writing is genuine and thoughtful. Lizet is a very believable character. Not perfect, but trying. My discussion group chose this book for next week’s discussion. I had to go back to read up on Elián González because I had forgotten a lot of the particulars. Do you remember his story?For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter.
    • 4/5
      "When everyone around you thinks they already know what your life is like, it's easier to play in to that idea"- Lizet RamirezLizet, daughter of Cuban immigrant parents decides to attend an elite college in order to carve a way I the world for herself. Her parents split right before she starts and her mother and sister feel betrayed that she left them behind. Lizet feels trapped between two worlds: being a minority student and family responsibilities.At the same time that she is struggling in college, the plight of Ariel Hernandez makes the national news. The story is told through Lizet's eyes but interwoven with the immigration and custody battle that is ensuing with Ariel Hernandez, a boy who washed ashore after his mother and stepfather died trying to make it safely to Miami. Lizet's mother soon becomes completely consumed with Ariel's quest for the American dream while negating her daughter's experiences trying to achieve this same ideal.What I loved about this novel was that it spotlighted the first generation immigrant experience in college. It exposed the cultural challenges to diversity in college experiences in nuanced ways. It gave voice to the Latinx experience in education and provided insight into the traditional ways that often times become a barrier to upward mobility.The characters were unique and not stereotypical. The author wrote each one with depth, unique speech and authenticity. They had a duality that made you want to hate them one minute and then love them the next. The author gave a descriptive picture of Miami, its culture and highlights the Cuban experience especially. You feel like you know these places by the end of the story.It was refreshing to feel that I could identify with so many aspects of the story. It stretched my own understanding on the Latinx experience and made me sad over some parts that haven't changed, especially the immigration policy in the U.S. More importantly I came away with the idea that home is what you make of it. Home is the reference point from which you create your own way in the world.I loved this story and was totally captivated by the events. At times I felt Ariel's experience took precedence, I could see why it was important. The ending was satisfying to wrap up the story but left me with sadness about the state of immigration today.
    • 5/5
      It's odd to think of the turn of the millennium as historical but I guess it is now. This is a story of a young Cuban woman raised in Miami during the Elian Gonzalez situation. She is the first of her family to go to college and she is torn between her family in Florida and her new, created family in the North. Perfect for young women just graduated from high school or at a crossroads in their life.
    • 5/5
      An important and interesting book for a college employee to read. Lizet is a first generation college student from a poor area of Miami who applies and is accepted at a prestigious liberal arts college in upstate New York. This novel documents her first year at college in the fall of 1999 where she is one of a handful of minority students. Although she is smart she is tripped up by the academic culture and nearly flunks out of school her first semester. She steps up and gets the help she needs and recovers academically, but meanwhile she has to deal with her family who can't support her either emotionally or financially, her high school boyfriend, her legacy roommate and the expectations of professors who don't 'know her story. I really enjoyed this book. The tension Liz is under as her worlds collide is palpable.
    • 3/5
      In an article apparently originally published on BookPage but reprinted on LitHub, Jennine Capó Crucet explains what led her to write Make Your Home Among Strangers:"I imagined the book to be this fictional road map of the first-generation college student’s experience, one that shows some of the ugly things race and class differences force on us."In its focus on race and class differences, this book is particularly timely, given the recent spate of student "demands" on college campuses across the country and the scholarly focus on the concept of "mismatch" as it affects the Supreme Court's consideration of affirmative action in Fisher II.I received a free copy of Make Your Home Among Strangers through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      This story is so poignant I wonder if the author took this story from her own life. Creating a Cuban- American girl who went to an academically low-achieving high school yet managed to get into a challenging college program far from her home in Miami sounds like a Cinderella story. Perhaps it is except there were more impediments to success than a wicked stepmother. Rich white college classmates, a tough boy Miami boyfriend, divorced parents, an unmarried sister with a baby, and a mother who gets too emotionally tied to the Elian Gonzalez story and nearly being kicked out of college her first semester because of plagiarism, make Lizet a most engaging and memorable protagonist. I was dispairing her choices 3/4th of the way through, but spunky, original Lizet proved me wrong! Hurray. I agree with several other reviewers. This is a must-read book.
    • 4/5
      Lizet, youngest daughter of Cuban parents but accepted as a scholarship student at a prestigious college. Her parents marriage breaks up, her dad moving out at the same time Lizet leaves Miami to go east to school.Lizet is an interesting character that we will see change and grow throughout this story. The first in her family to go to college she has a rough road to tow. She doesn't feel that she fits into her college's environment, misses her familiar life back at home. That however, is changing to as her mom become involved in the situation of young Ariel Gonzalez, the little boy rescued and brought into this country, but whom the government is attempting to send home. Also, her sister thinks that now Lizet feels she is so smart and better than they are, that she looks down on them.The story stalls in a few places but it does a great job showing the plight of the immigrant. The first to go to college in a family and how they have trouble fitting into a new life but finding they no longer fit into the old. The comparison in the story with Ariel's plight and Lizets attempt to find her place is well told. Lizet must find her way forwards while retaining her relationship with her family. Good storytelling and an interesting concept.ARC from NetGalley.