Martita, I Remember You

Author: Sandra Ciscernos
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2021
Pages: 51 (combined English/Spanish is 128)
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: As a young woman, Corina leaves her Mexican family in Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer in the cafes of Paris. Instead, she spends her brief time in the City of Light running out of money and lining up with other immigrants to call home from a broken pay phone. But the months of befriending artists in the metro, sleeping on crowded floors, and dancing the tango at underground parties are given a lasting glow by her intense friendships with Martita and Paola. Over the years the three women disperse to three continents, falling out of touch and out of mind - until a rediscovered letter brings Corina's days in Paris back with breathtaking immediacy.

Review: I was three books shy of my reading goal for the year, when I picked this thin book off the shelf at my library. I figured at 51 pages, I could get through it no matter what it was. I recognized the author because a decade ago I read another book by Ciscernos, The House on Mango Street, which I loved.

Told largely in letter format, this short novel was transportive, and it made me want to visit Paris. Now in my mid-forties the friendship, history, and years since these women first met was relatable.