Ann Dávila Cardinal (she/her) is the Nuyorican, Vermont-based novelist of the magical realism novel The Storyteller’s Death and the forthcoming We Need No Wings (2024), as well as the young adult novels Five Midnights, Category Five, and Breakup from Hell. She is the winner of the International Latino Book Award and a Bram Stoker Award finalist. She comes from a long line of Puerto Rican writers.
Books
About The Storyteller’s Death
"A beautiful book about family, memories, and the power of stories." ―BuzzFeed
"Mystical, masterful storytelling." ―Ms. Magazine
From International Latino Book Award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes a gorgeously written family saga about a Puerto Rican woman who finds herself gifted (or cursed?) with a strange ability.
There was always an old woman dying in the back room of her family's house when Isla was a child...
Isla Larsen Sanchez's life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage.
When Isla turns eighteen, her grandmother, a great storyteller, dies. It is then that Isla discovers she has a gift passed down through her family's cuentistas. The tales of dead family storytellers are brought back to life, replaying themselves over and over in front of her.
At first, Isla is enchanted by this connection to the Sanchez cuentistas. But when Isla has a vision of an old murder mystery, she realizes that if she can't solve it to make the loop end, these seemingly harmless stories could cost Isla her life.
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