~ Have I lived well? 

~ Can I die well?

~ How do I practice love? 

~ How do I let go of love?

~ How can I document my memories?

~ What stories do I want to tell?

~ What stories do I need to hear from the people I love?

The more the hours pass since I finished this book on Friday, the more I think about these questions. A book that stays with me like this is the very best kind. 

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What it’s about: THE FAMILY LORE by Elizabeth Acevedo is about a Dominican American family and its magical, complex women. It begins with Flor inviting everyone to a living wake in honor of herself. This is alarming because Flor has a gift of predicting when people will die. From there, we experience the preparations for this event and, more critically, the questions, fears and memories that arise amongst all of the Marte women.

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A note about formats: Obviously, I recommend whichever format a reader needs or prefers. But for those able, I suggest both the physical and audiobook. I don’t usually do this myself because my reading and listening paces don’t really match, but it was the perfect experience with this book. I appreciated seeing the visual organization of the story: there are a lot of intentional “disruptions” - in the middle of one story the memory of another one shows up. This was easier for me to follow with the physical copy. I also liked referring to the list of characters in the front. That said, Acevedo’s narration is spellbinding. I’m so glad I did the audio as well.