Catalina

“[A] sparkling fiction debut … Cornejo Villavicencio’s prose seduces her readers… . With this story and character, Cornejo Villavicencio asks: Who’s the real meritocrat at Harvard, where corporate scions and children of celebrities rule? Students like Catalina don’t sit at the table, Cornejo Villavicencio suggests, until they do. The author’s voice is strong but the social critique is stronger… . Through this story line, Cornejo Villavicencio revisits themes she covered in her nonfiction work, the National Book Award finalist The Undocumented Americans, but here, in Catalina, she enlarges her canvas, luxuriating in the freedom found in fiction. This talky, shrewd, irresistible protagonist deepens our understanding of how small slights and epic challenges mold an immigrant’s life.”—The New York Times Book Review “Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s debut work of fiction captures the paradox of immigrant identity in the United States… . Cornejo Villavicencio’s fluid, digressive prose shines brightest when Catalina’s theatrical self-presentation takes center stage… . Cornejo Villavicencio delivers irrefutable proof that, when it comes to depicting courtship, she is a worthy student of Gabriel García Márquez.”—The Atlantic “[A] fresh and unflinching take on the campus novel.”—People “Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s cacophonous first novel is hard to pin down, which is precisely the point… . Cornejo Villavicencio swims against the tides of stereotypical stories about immigrant children, campus misfits, and undocumented students. Her writing repels platitudes and clichés to chart a much-needed path in fiction, one that allows characters to journey wherever they please.”—Hyperallergic“The Undocumented Americans author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s first novel follows the titular character, a charming and cunning undocumented Ivy League student, as she prepares for post-grad life… . With Catalina, Villavicencio draws from her own experience as an undocumented person and Harvard grad to give voice to a fierce, but vulnerable character.”—Time“Diabolically charming and magnetic . . . About once every page of Catalina I found myself pausing to marvel at some incredibly breathtaking sentence.  I honestly don’t know how you write like this. I don’t know how you make something that feels so urgent and driven and alive. I enjoyed the hell out of this little exploding geyser of a book.”—Ira Glass“Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, one of the most kinetic and ingenious writers of this sorry epoch, has given us a hero among heroes—a young woman as extraordinary and regular as us all, or as we hope to be. Catalina forever. Everybody else is on notice.”—Julianne Escobedo Shepherd“Smart, charming, funny, ambitious … By so enthrallingly and perceptively giving unprecedented individual voice to a defining issue of our time, Catalina seems destined to be a contemporary American classic.”—Francisco Goldman, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy“Wonderful . . . Karla Cornejo Villavicencio has given us two gifts in one, a character so sparkling in her independence, so fierce in her refusal to be confined to stereotype. In prose that bristles with intelligence and wit, we see Catalina facing the uncertainties of undocumented immigrant life and, at the same time, we get the full range of her life—her erudite mind, her questing soul, her desire for love and freedom. Catalina is a funny, tender, and urgent novel.”—Glenda R. Carpio, author of Laughing Fit to Kill“An unforgettable character … Page after page I wrestled with Catalina but she refused to be pinned down, earning my fury and affection. She’s an American original, a fragile and funny powerhouse.”—Quiara Alegría Hudes, author of My Broken Language

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is the author of the National Book Award finalist The Undocumented Americans. Her work, which focuses on race, culture, and immigration, has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, Elle, n+1, The New Inquiry, Interview, and on NPR.