Speak to Me of Home

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What to expect

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of American Dirt, comes a heartfelt, multigenerational family story which asks: what does it mean to call a place home?

'Delectable... a pleasure to read' THE TIMES
'A riveting tale of three generations, this is storytelling at its finest' JOHN BOYNE
'Utterly absorbing, a big, sweeping story of family and identity' EDEL COFFEY

'Why hadn't she said to her daughter I love you beyond reason and none of this matters at all and every day that you breathe is a gift?'

Rafaela remembers everything that matters: her beautiful childhood in San Juan, her marriage to Peter, uprooting their children, Ruth and Benny, to the American Midwest, and losing all sense of her place in the world. So she tells no one when her memory begins to slip.

Her daughter, in New York with a family of her own, wishes she could forget her muddy feelings about where she comes from - the same feelings which motivated her 22-year-old daughter Daisy to reconnect with their past.

Daisy, who has momentarily forgotten everything, hears the word critical in a hospital room in San Juan and remembers, all at once, the car that hurtled towards her, the terrible storm, and something else. What was it?

Now Ruth and Rafaela must return to the city where it all began, to gather by Daisy's bedside and confront the twists of fate that have caused a growing rift in their family and led them to this moment.

Critics Review

A big swooning romance, elegantly constructed and a pleasure to read... delectable
The Times
Speak to Me of Home explores the compassion, frustration, and determination of emigrants from Puerto Rico to America. Cummins' characters leap off the page, many suffering homesickness, some hiding secrets, but all filled with love. A riveting tale of three generations, this is storytelling at its finest
John Boyne, author of THE HEART'S INVISIBLE FURIES
I loved this book. Utterly absorbing, a big, sweeping story of family and identity, and what it means to belong. I fell in love with these characters and did not want this book to end. As emotional as it is insightful on the subject of home. A total tour de force, Jeanine Cummins is a master storyteller.
Edel Coffey, author of BREAKING POINT and IN HER PLACE
An engrossing cross-generational saga, and a heartfelt look at identity and what it means to belong
The Shift
Entrancing. . . . There is a radiance to this saga. . . . the empathy with which Cummins envisions her characters is a poignant reminder that it is actual human beings who approach our borders, each with a singular story to tell
Washington Post
A compelling novel, this is the perfect love song to the comfort of belonging, to the sadness when it falls away, and to the glory of when it is re-found
Sunday Independent (Ireland)
Hops through time to tell a touching story about roots and belonging
Real Simple
A fine novel. . . . Daisy's sections are the heart of the novel, dipping into magical realism as her spirit navigates the border between life and death and brings the family to her bedside with triumphant and transcendent love. This commendable return for Cummins comes with a surprise cherry-on-top twist
Booklist
Engrossing. . . . Cummins succeeds at breathing life into her large cast of characters and excels at depicting the nuances of a mother-daughter relationship
Publishers Weekly
Jeanine Cummins' Speak To Me Of Home is a masterful love letter to our shared homeland of Puerto Rico, the global diaspora, and every American. Once again, Cummins surveys the depths of the immigrant experience and compassionately examines the push and pull between our individual identity and our ancestral ties. Through three generations of Boricua women, the novel powerfully demonstrates that the greatest inheritance we can pass on is a courageous heart willing to adapt. Speak To Me Of Home is an epic must-read.
Sarah McCoy, author of Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely
Jeanine Cummins' new novel is a beautiful, tender, complex story of origin, displacement, identity, and belonging. Poetically written and brimming with heart, Speak to Me of Home tells of a family's yearning, through the generations, to find the roots that truly anchor them, the land that calls them home. A most moving and meaningful read
Jennifer Rosner, prizewinning author of The Yellow Bird Sings
Filled with vibrant prose and emotions
Woman's World
Filled with vibrant prose and emotion
Woman's World

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
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5.0
franrobinson 16/08/2025

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