A Cuban American family is sent into a tailspin when the ailing matriarch confesses the first of several shocking secrets to her daughter before undergoing heart surgery in this tender and twisty debut novel.
Monica Campo is pregnant with her first child when, moments before being wheeled into emergency heart surgery, her mother confesses a long-held secret: Monica’s father is not the man who raised her. But when her mother wakes up and begins having delusional episodes, Monica doesn’t know what to believe—whether the confession was real or just a channeling of the telenovela her mother watches nightly.
In her despair, Monica wants to speak with only one person: her ex-boyfriend of five years, Manny. She can’t help but worry, though, what this says about her relationship with her fiancé and father of her unborn child.
Monica’s search for the truth leads her to a new understanding of the past: the early eighties when her parents arrived from Cuba on the famous Mariel boatlift, and the tumultuous seventies, a decade after Castro’s takeover, when some people were still secretly fighting his regime—people like her mother and the man she claims is Monica’s real father. Tell It to Me Singing is a story that takes readers from Miami to Cuba to the jungles of Costa Rica and, along the way, explores the question of how and to whom we belong, how a life is built, and how we know when we’re home.
“Riveting… As the story unfurls, Tell It to Me Singing develops into a deeply heartfelt, frequently humorous and historically germane exploration of how one family uses the combination of truth and love to heal from generational pain. A propulsive, heart-pumping and unexpected melodrama that is achingly human and bursting with love.” —Atlanta Journal Constitution
“Family secrets are at the heart of this twisty read… Mónica’s Journey was complex, funny and inspiring.” —FIRST for Women
"[A] tender and warm family story... Cuban history is deftly woven into the making of the Campo family, adding an additional layer of interest and understanding of the choices that were made." —Southern Independent Bookseller Association
“Ramírez’s tale of family and love and political fallout truly brings the drama… a charming novel in which the Spanish flows naturally, and family affection flows warmly.” —Booklist
