Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
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Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

Contemporary fiction

Olga Dies Dreaming

Debut
Early Release

by Xochitl Gonzalez

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Quick take

Two siblings vie for the American dream until Hurricane Maria drags their estranged mother back into their lives.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, Buzzy

    Buzzy

  • Illustrated icon, Mama_Drama

    Mama drama

  • Illustrated icon, NYC

    NYC

Synopsis

It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro “Prieto” Acevedo, are boldfaced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn, while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan’s power brokers.

Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1 percent but she can’t seem to find her own. . . until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets.

Olga and Prieto’s mother, Blanca, a Young Lord turned radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.

Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history, Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife, and the very notion of the American dream—all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.

Content warning

This book contains mentions of suicide and sexual assault.

Read a sample

Get an early look from the first pages of Olga Dies Dreaming.

Olga Dies Dreaming

The Napkins

The telltale sign that you are at the wedding of a rich person is the napkins. At the not-rich person’s wedding, should a waiter spill water or wine or a mixed drink of well liquor onto the napkin-covered lap of a guest, the beverage would bead up and roll off the cheap square of commercially laundered polyblend fabric, down the guest’s legs, eventually pooling on the hideous, overly busy patterned carpet designed and chosen specifically to mask these such stains. At the rich person’s wedding, however, the napkins are made of a European linen fine enough for a Tom Wolfe suit, hand-pressed into smooth order and trimmed with a gracious hemstitch border. Should the waiter spill any of the luxury bottled water, vintage wine, or custom-crafted cocktails designed by a mixologist for the occasion, the napkin would, dutifully, absorb any moisture before the incident could irritate a couture-clad guest. Of course, at the rich person’s wedding the waitstaff don’t spill things; they have been separated and elevated from their more slovenly, less-coordinated brethren in a natural selection process of the service industry that judges on appearance, gait, and inherent knowledge of which side to serve from and which to clear. The rich person’s wedding also never features hideous carpet. Not because the venue or locale might not have had one, but because they had the money to cover it over. And not necessarily just with another nicer, more tasteful carpet, but with hardwood flooring, black and white Havana-inspired tiles, or even actual, natural grass. These, though, were the more obvious markers of wealth at a milestone life celebration for the rich person, and while Olga Isabel Acevedo’s job required her to worry about all of these elements and more, the present moment found her primarily concerned with the napkins. Mainly, how she could steal them when the party was over.

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Other books by Xochitl Gonzalez

Contemporary fiction
Wild Dark Shore
The Last Love Note
What Does It Feel Like?
Jane and Dan at the End of the World
Anita de Monte Laughs Last
More or Less Maddy
The Wedding People
Next to Heaven
Home of the American Circus
A Family Matter
Penitence
The Names
The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits
The Favorites
The Summer We Ran
Honey
We All Live Here
The Leftover Woman
My Friends
The River Is Waiting
Water Baby
The Same Bright Stars
The Three Lives of Cate Kay
What Happened to the McCrays?
Bye, Baby
Swan Song
The Days I Loved You Most
The Connellys of County Down
Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life
Jackpot Summer
I Might Be in Trouble
Again and Again
Evil Eye
Black Cake
Maame
Romantic Comedy
We Are the Brennans
The Bad Muslim Discount
What Comes After
Olga Dies Dreaming
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
Monster in the Middle
Nine Perfect Strangers
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
Honey Girl
In Every Mirror She's Black
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Sankofa
The Unsinkable Greta James
The Love of My Life
The Five-Star Weekend
The Wishing Game
Behold the Dreamers
The Mothers
The Music Shop
The Reckless Oath We Made
When We Were Vikings
The Girl with the Louding Voice
Big Summer
All Adults Here
Happy & You Know It
Friends and Strangers
The Comeback
True Story
The Last Story of Mina Lee
White Ivy
This Close to Okay
The Chicken Sisters
The Prophets
In a Book Club Far Away
The Other Black Girl
Apples Never Fall
A Quiet Life
We Are the Light
The Most Likely Club
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
The Hotel Nantucket
These Summer Storms
Finding Grace
The View From Lake Como
To the Moon and Back
The Academy
Cursed Daughters
Lost Lambs
The Future Saints
Good People
So Old, So Young
This Book Made Me Think of You
Love is an Algorithm
Yesteryear
Into the Blue
Last Night in Brooklyn
The Burning Side
The Lowe Job
Worse Than Strangers
Contemporary fiction
View all
Wild Dark Shore
The Last Love Note
What Does It Feel Like?
Jane and Dan at the End of the World
Anita de Monte Laughs Last
More or Less Maddy
The Wedding People
Next to Heaven
Home of the American Circus
A Family Matter
Penitence
The Names
The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits
The Favorites
The Summer We Ran
Honey
We All Live Here
The Leftover Woman
My Friends
The River Is Waiting
Water Baby
The Same Bright Stars
The Three Lives of Cate Kay
What Happened to the McCrays?
Bye, Baby
Swan Song
The Days I Loved You Most
The Connellys of County Down
Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life
Jackpot Summer
I Might Be in Trouble
Again and Again
Evil Eye
Black Cake
Maame
Romantic Comedy
We Are the Brennans
The Bad Muslim Discount
What Comes After
Olga Dies Dreaming
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
Monster in the Middle
Nine Perfect Strangers
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
Honey Girl
In Every Mirror She's Black
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Sankofa
The Unsinkable Greta James
The Love of My Life
The Five-Star Weekend
The Wishing Game
Behold the Dreamers
The Mothers
The Music Shop
The Reckless Oath We Made
When We Were Vikings
The Girl with the Louding Voice
Big Summer
All Adults Here
Happy & You Know It
Friends and Strangers
The Comeback
True Story
The Last Story of Mina Lee
White Ivy
This Close to Okay
The Chicken Sisters
The Prophets
In a Book Club Far Away
The Other Black Girl
Apples Never Fall
A Quiet Life
We Are the Light
The Most Likely Club
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
The Hotel Nantucket
These Summer Storms
Finding Grace
The View From Lake Como
To the Moon and Back
The Academy
Cursed Daughters
Lost Lambs
The Future Saints
Good People
So Old, So Young
This Book Made Me Think of You
Love is an Algorithm
Yesteryear
Into the Blue
Last Night in Brooklyn
The Burning Side
The Lowe Job
Worse Than Strangers