Melissa Rivero (The Affairs of the Falcóns) sensitively explores the complicated bond between a Peruvian American mother and daughter in her second novel, Flores and Miss Paula. Told in alternating chapters from each woman's perspective, the novel opens three years after the death of Martín, the beloved husband of Paula and father of Mónica Flores (who goes by her last name). Flores is stunned to find a note under her father's urn, written in her mother's handwriting and begging for forgiveness, and wonders what (and who) is involved in that request. Rivero delves into the family's struggles and triumphs to draw an intimate portrait of an immigrant family with conflicting needs and desires, but undergirded by great love.
Thirtysomething Flores is marking time, crunching numbers at the aquarium start-up where she's worked for years. Paula has found new purpose and community in her job at the local DollaBills store, but she still worries about her daughter. Both of them struggle to share their emotions with each other, or express the grief they both know they have. When Flores receives a notice that they'll have to leave their apartment, she wonders what it might be like to live on her own, separate from her mother.
Rivero's story unfolds against a vivid backdrop of New York City in the summer, complete with fireworks, Latin American festivals, humid nights, and the push-pull of living in a tightly knit community yet wanting to forge one's own path. Wryly humorous and often tender, Flores and Miss Paula explores the generational divide between two strong women, the effects of grief, and the possibilities of change. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams