LibraryReads and Indie Next PickThis mesmerizing debut set in Colombia at the height of Pablo Escobar's violent reign is about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid whose unlikely friendship threatens to undo them both. Inspired by the author's own life, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricably linked, coming-of-age stories.
In this heartfelt story about how the places we run from hold the answers to our deepest challenges, the death of her grandmother brings a young woman home, where she must face the past in order to become the heir of not just the family restaurant, but her own destiny. Violeta Sanoguera had always done what she was told. She left the man she loved in Colombia in pursuit of a better life for herself and because her mother and grandmother didn't approve of him. Chasing dreams of education and art in New York City, and with a new love, twenty-eight-year-old Violeta establishes a new life for hers... continue