Olga Dies Dreaming

A blazing new talent debuts with the story of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her absent mother, her glittering career among New York's elite and her Puerto Rican roots in the wake of Hurricane Maria. 'Olga Dies Dreaming is the story of an imperfect family shattered by secrets, grief and abandonment, and of people who rise up, refusing to be broken. Smart, witty and driven, Gonzalez's Olga hustles, stumbles, falls and eventually finds her way. An unflinching examination of capitalism, corruption, gentrification, colonialism and their effects on marginalised people, Olga Dies Dreaming is a poignant, scalding debut' Jaquira Díaz, author of Ordinary Girls 'The extraordinary accomplishment of Olga Dies Dreaming is in how a familiar-enough tale - a woman seeking love, happiness and fulfilment in the big city - slowly reveals itself to be something else altogether . . .' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind 'Wisdom, tenderness and abundant humour . . . I will think about its richly drawn, deeply human characters for a very long time' Cynthia d'Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest and Good Company 'Deeply satisfying and nuanced . . . a tender exploration of love in its many forms' Observer 'Gonzalez couples engrossing political intrigue with engagingly flawed characters you can't help but root for' Mail on Sunday It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro 'Prieto' Acevedo, are bold-faced 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 one 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. Twenty-seven years ago, their 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, 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.