So much happens when Alma Cruz decides to retire from teaching and writing. Seeking closure, she cremates or buries boxes and boxes of her unfinished stories in a one-of-a-kind cemetery. Then, oops, her characters don’t exactly rest in peace!

This book’s whimsical premise will undoubtedly spark lots of focus on its magical realism. However, it’s my hope that the book’s elements of autofiction and metafiction get more limelight. This is a cheeky book! The writing is so self-aware, and I thought its attributes of autofiction and metafiction were far more defining than the story’s magical realism. I just loved the use of wordplay and idioms and how Alvarez even toed the line of satire (without ever quite crossing it).

Alvarez explores a theme of willful ignorance in the book that was unsettling, namely because the character that most embodies the trait was an intimate of Trujillo. This book stretched my comfort zone when it comes to empathy in interesting, difficult ways.

READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Writers writing about writers
• Stream-of-consciousness style storytelling
• Honoring the stories within all of us

I THOUGHT IT WAS...
A reflective, engaging novel about stories and storytellers. Alma is towards the end of her writing career and decides to move back to the Dominican Republic, turning a plot of land she inherited into a cemetery for the stories she never told. She hires Filomena to be the cemetery's caretaker, a local woman with a stirring story of her own.

This book feels like Alvarez's own attempt to process the waning of her own prolific writing career as she gets older. It grapples with an interesting question: What happens to the stories that don't get told, that stay forever in draft? This isn't a question that only writers have to answer. All of us contain stories within ourselves, whether they be thrilling, scandalous, or mundane. What happens if we don't get to tell them to others?

Ultimately, I really liked this novel, but it is a little bit of a jarring reading experience. The first section is all about Alma, roving all over her life. But we then abruptly pull away from her and start jumping around among the other characters. Every character is fascinating and their life story is rich, but it can be a little difficult to track the narrative if you aren't paying close attention.

I also wish there had been a little more ending. I would have liked some space to ponder the opposite of untold stories -- what it means to share a story with the world that doesn't want to be shared. In the end, I think Alvarez just wants to remind us to give stories respect. Give everyone a chance to share their story, but don't push the ones who just want to be at peace.

When I read a book I have a 'movie' version playing in my brain, and this one was so rich and real and colorful, I almost started over from the beginning when I was finished.
It's the story of novelist Alma, who lived in the U.S as an adult, but returns to the Dominican Republic after retirement.
There she tries to 'bury' some of her untold stories (unpublished works) - but they live on. Some of the characters are part of her family and some are the family members of people Alma befriends in the DR. There's a lot going on in these stories, but somehow, they all start to interconnect.
The writing takes you right to the 'Cemetery' and into all these characters lives. Some of their stories are happy, some are sad, some are brutal.
There is some Spanish in this book, and I'm at kindergarten level, but that didn't take anything away for me.
This book was (for me) amazing, incredible, beautiful, wonderful and the pictures it painted in my mind were stunning.
Thanks to the NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the Advanced Reader Copy, these opinions are my own.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories is a book for avid readers and book lovers. Told in third-person narrative, the main character, Alma Cruz, unintentionally collects unfinished stories, and toward the end of her writing career, she also has many unfinished or untold stories. What can she do to stop the madness of the characters taking residence in her thoughts?

As Alma’s story progresses, we learn the stories of her unnamed “writer-friend”, her father, Dr. Manuel Cruz, a Dominican Republic historical figure, Bienvenida Trujillo, and her cemetery caretaker, Filomena. Through their stories, we learn some culture and history of the Dominican Republic. As I read, I felt that I was a Peeping Tom sneaking peeks at Ms. Alvarez’ soul as this novel felt very personal. Figuratively and literally, the characters of the untold stories speak to “us”—the readers and some of the living characters in the book.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories is partial about love, family and secrets, but at its core, this book is about how we connect through stories. If nothing else, author Julia Alvarez will force readers to think about how many stories have been left unfinished and “buried” by their favorite authors.

Writer Alma Cruz is tasked with helping others to bury their untold stories. When she receives a plot of land in her homeland of the Dominican Republic, she creates a literal graveyard for manuscripts, characters, etc. Through this process, the stories of her own characters are shared with Filomena, hired as a caretaker, and we, in turn, learn her story as well. The storytelling ranges from dark to comedic to romantic at times.
I thought this was an interesting story approach but between the different characters’ stories and the changes in timeline/POV, I also found it hard to follow along at times.
Thank you to Algonquin Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Julia Álavrez never disappoints. Never. Her writing has a gentleness to it that can temporarily make us feel it's not doing much. This is a mistake. Word by word, idea by idea, she takes us to fantastic places. And she doesn't do this with a lot of flash and bang—or at least not the kind of flash and bang that shake the house and put everyone on edge. Instead we readers find ourselves realizing there is so much going on here in this novel that pretends it's not saying much at all.

OK, that's not true of all her work. In the Time of the Butterflies definitely has flash and bang—and hilarity and righteous anger and justice and injustice and so much more. But her more recent work is just as powerful in a way that sneaks up on us. Case in point: The Cemetery of Untold Stories. The premise here (if we assume that in some ways what writers write about is themselves, which, of course, we. are. never. supposed. to. do) is almost self-deprecating. A writer finds herself growing older surrounded by a growing body of unfinished works: stories and novels that she wanted to write, needed to write, but that quietly refused to be written.

So what can this writer do? She can move back to her home country, create a graveyard with room for each unfinished story, and allow the stories to fall into a kind of sleep in which they interact with one another.

Reading The Cemetery of Untold Stories is like looking into one of those multi-paned dressing room mirrors, the kind in which, depending on how we angle the different panes in relation to one another show us multiple images and multiples of multiple images. And just like the images in those mirrors, no matter how complex the story gets, its parts remain alongside one another. We think we're taking baby steps, moving forward in small increments; then, at some point we realize we've been given seven-league boots to wear and are traveling distances we couldn't have imagined from our starting place.

Read this book. Respect its pace, but don't be fooled. The journey is magical.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

I can’t help but think that The Cemetery of Untold Stories was a deeply personal novel for Julia Alvarez. At its core is a Dominican author, Alma, who is at the end of her career, no longer the uber-popular author she once was. She has boxes of incomplete manuscripts, stories that for one reason or another she was unable to finish. After her father dies and she inherits a track of land, she moves back to the Dominican Republic, builds a house, and also constructs a cemetery for her unfinished manuscripts. And wouldn’t you know, some of the characters from her unfinished stories speak from the grave to the woman she hired to be the property’s caretaker.

While this does bring up topics that Alvarez writes about in so many of her stories (sisterhood, family, identity), ultimately this is a story about stories. What stories should be told? By whom? And what do you do with a story that haunts you? What stories need to rest in peace?

Come for the books about books vibes. Stay for the unparalleled writing style of Julia Alvarez.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Cemetery of Untold Stories will be published on April 2.

To be honest I had a hard time getting into this book. I felt like it was hard to connect to Alma, nevermind the several side characters. If I’m being honest, if I hadn’t received an ARC copy I likely would have DNF’d this book. That said, I did love the story of Bienvenida and Manuel, especially when they intersected.

Though this book perhaps just wasn’t for me, to quote the book; “All stories are good stories if you find the right listener”.

Thank you Algonquin Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for this ebook ARC.
I was fully immersed in the story of the author who creates a cemetery to bury her unfinished stories, and how the characters interconnect.
I did get two groups of sisters mixed up at times, but the story was very enjoyable.

Alma, a writer and English professor returns and retires to her plot of land in her homeland, the Dominican Republic that she has inherited from her parents. On the land she creates a cemetery, but not for people - but for untold stories, for manuscripts that have never been sold, and for those stories that have never been shared (for reasons of shame or for lack of power of the author), now these tales have a resting place. The groundskeeper, Filomena, has her own stories to share as well and she has a compassionate ear as she (and the reader) listens to the secret tales of the graveyard’s storytellers.

I have loved everything this author has written so I was very excited for this one as well. While parts of the books got a bit confusing at times, I found the stories themselves to be wonderful (maybe confusing because the POVs and timelines kept switching back and forth and there were quite a few to keep track). I loved the magical realism concept that the storytellers in the cemetery were speaking and telling their stories to each other (and that they were rekindling old friendships since they all had some connection to each other). The book reminded me a bit of an Allende novel and kept bringing me back to when I read House of Spirits. I thought the audio narrator was wonderful in this one and was able to handle all the different POVs but I do feel this is one where the book is probably necessary to not be so confused (so maybe don’t do only audio but use is to augment the experience because the narrator is so good).

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the ARC to review

Thank you to Algonquin Books for choosing me to be part of the book influencer tour for this book and for providing me a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What do you do, as an author, when you have so many stories left untold? Build a cemetery and bury them… obviously.

Alma is convinced that her author friend descended into madness and died as a result of the novel that she could neither write nor put aside, so Alma has decided to use the land in the Dominican Republic that she just inherited from her father. She’s enlisted her artist friend to make sculptures to correlate with her “failed” stories, particularly for the stories of her father, Manuel, and Bienvenida, an ex-wife of DR dictator Rafael Trujillo. In order for the public to get access to the cemetery, a story must be told. Filomena does just that by reaching bad into her tragic history and becoming the first visitor to the cemetery, then its caretaker. One of her daily tasks is to sit and visit each grave; however, she doesn’t expect to have the buried stories told to her from beyond the grave.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories takes us on multiple journeys in multiple countries spanning multiple years, all compelling (and sad) in their own right. Since there were no chapter breaks in part one or quotation marks, I got super nervous when I started reading the book, but the stories and the writing kept me hooked. It did get a bit confusing at times keeping the characters straight, but I still really enjoyed this book and felt invested in each story (I do think that some of Alma’s story, specifically the parts relating to her sisters, could have been cut down a bit, though).

I’m super thankful to have had the opportunity to read this book and to have learned more about the Dominican Republic. This was the first book I’ve read by Julie Alvarez, but I’d be open to reading more by her.

🇩🇴📚🪜

This book started off strong, but then it fell flat. When I started it, I couldn't put it down, but even the next day, when I continued to read, I had forgotten all that happened within the story already.

You might say that the characters we read about in novels speak to us in one way or another each time we read a work of fiction. I’ve said any number of times that an author brings his or her characters to life, but Julia Alvarez has given that phrase a whole new meaning with a dose of magical realism that makes for such an enticing read. Alma, a writer is unable to fully tell the story of some characters she has been trying to write about for years. Nearing what she sees as the end of her writing career, she decides to move back to the Dominican Republic where she lived as a girl and bury the remnants of her stories in a “cemetery of untold stories” . However, two of her characters have ideas of their own and take over parts of the narrative to be sure their stories are told. What a clever mechanism!

They tell their stories to Filomena, who Alma hires as a caretaker . We learn Filomena’s story as well and get caught up in the drama of her family. Bienvenida Trujillo, the ex wife of the past dictator of Dominican Republic and Alma’s father Dr. Manuel Cruz are the two characters who speak to Filomena and to each other as well after the boxes containing drafts and notes of their stories have been buried. The combined story lines reflect a slice of Dominican history, complex family dynamics, and family secrets. It’s dark at times, funny at times, and thought provoking. It’s about love and family, aging and of course about storytelling, how people’s lives connect through our stories .

Julia Alvarez is a wonderful storyteller . I’ve read several of her novels and she never disappoints. Anyone interested in that slice of Dominican history should read her beautful novel “In the Time of the Butterflies” based on the lives of three real sisters . I have to be sure to get to her classic “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents “ one of these days soon.

I received a copy of this book Algonquin Press through NetGalley.

3.5
First of all, Julia Alvarez is a beautiful writer! Her use of English intermixed with Spanish gives such a sense of place and gives the characters a true sense of person in their space. The way she tells stories is poetic.

Magical realism is such a cool aspect to add to fictional reads and can be done in such a cool way. I loved the idea here that Alma buries her stories in a land that she inherits and then those characters in those stories then tell their stories. Filomena becomes the caretaker of the cemetery of untold stories and finally catches her break in life having a good boss and a good job. I loved hearing her story perhaps the most.

My one issue with the e-book that I'm hoping is just the digital ARC issue was how the POV's changed almost without me realizing it until I got confused with the storyline. The different POV's weaved in and out of one another to a point that I was constantly needing to change gears in my head as to who's storyline I needed to adjust to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the gifted e-ARC of this book.

Alma Cruz is a novelist living in the United States. When it's time to retire, she returns to the Dominican Republic, where she grew up. She has inherited a piece of land near the town dump, and turns it into the Cemetery of Untold Stories. Alma takes her unfinished manuscripts and buries them—even burns some—in hopes of laying them to rest, and commissions her friend to install sculptures marking the spots. Alma even installs a speaker at the gate. People are not allowed to enter the cemetery unless they tell a story. But the stories Alma tried to destroy don’t want to stay buried, and begin to confide their secrets to Filomena, the groundskeeper, and others who are willing to listen.
This is a tale of madness, magic, and the power of the stories we tell.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories
By Julia Alvarez
Literary Fiction
Publishing April 2, 2024
Rating: 🦄🦄🦄🦄

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC.

From NetGalley "Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her."

This book was not only deep and beautifully written, but its characters were haunting and so memorable. I loved the layers of characters and how they all wove together.
Not only were the characters amazing, but the scenery and the setting were incredible. This book is mainly based in the Dominican Republic and there is so much here about the liveliness, the struggles, and the colors of this beautiful country. I have had the privilege of going to the DR and the culture is fascinating and the food is so good.
I feel like I got a little sidetracked. All in all, I very much enjoyed this book. It forces you to slow down and savor. To enjoy and soak in, to live and learn alongside the characters. I was so thankful for the reminder that our stories don't just impact us, they impact others and sometimes how their own stories go. When you fight and battle and survive, it's not just for you, it's for everyone else fighting, too.

#thecemeteryofumtoldstories #netgalley #juliaalvarez #literaryfiction #dominicanrepublic #bipoc #bipocauthor #inthetimeofthebutterflies #richculture #yourstory #ARC #advancedreaderscopy #readwidely

An unusual and beguiling novel about the voices that must be heard. Anna, who opts to bury her unfinished stories, never expected (why would she?) that the characters would tell their stories to one another. This linkage makes this a more complex tale than you might expect. The imagery and language are gorgeous. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction who are open to magical realism.

I loved the premise of the book.
It was so whimsical. Burying old manuscripts but then the characters refuse to be done.
I thought the concept was quite original and unique.
It shows a creative imagination to pull off such a story.
Sometimes, before I sorted the characters out, I did get a little confused but it was a fun read.

📚Book review📚 :: A Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez

Story premise: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Character development: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing style: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ending: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Cemetery of Untold Stories was absolute magic, magical realism at its finest. Julia Alvarez created a moving, at times shocking, portrait of a writer held captive by the stories she couldn't quite tell.

Our writer, Alma Cruz, feels herself nearing the end of her writing career but she is still the keeper of several untold stories. Plagued by her inability to get them all down and out of her mind, she fears she'll lose herself to them. When she inherits a piece of land in her homeland, the Dominican Republic, she decides to lay those stories, and the characters in them, to rest. She quite literally buries the stories in a cemetary/art installation but it's not rest they get. The stories take on voices of their own and they're not ready for their tales to be interred.

Every sentence, every word Alvarez has woven into this book carries the force of a life spent collecting tales. Through Alma and the cast of characters, both real and imagined, Alvarez reminds us of the cost of silence. This book becomes just as much about the stories that we do tell as the ones that go unheard or often, are silenced. Through the stories Alma buries, Alvarez gives life to the agony of a story being stolen or silenced or -- heaven forbid -- told incorrectly.

As someone who hears stories in the wind and the rocks and her daughter's curly hair, I felt this book with every cell of my body. Alvarez captures acutely the pain of a character frozen in one's mind, a story trapped on the tip of one's tongue or finger tip, a tale misunderstood or twisted.

In the end, The Cemetery of Untold Stories is a book about voice and the power it holds. For who gets to tell their own stories and why? And where do our stories go when we go? Alvarez has the answer for us, when we're ready to listen...

Not my first Alvarez but I had a hard time following along with this one. It jumps time and characters frequently and I felt like it took away from the plot at times.