HPA Book Club Scheduled for April 30

Hawai’i Preparatory Academy’s next Community Book Club is scheduled to meet on Thursday, April 30 at 7 p.m. in the Dyer Memorial Library on HPA’s Upper Campus.

This month’s selection is “The Book of Unknown Americans” by Cristina Henriquez. Dryer Memorial librarian Lois Inman and Upper School English teacher Jamie Johnson will lead the group.

Known to some as suspenseful, funny, and warm, rich in spirit and humanity, “The Book of Unknown Americans” has been deemed by many as “a new American classic.”

The story follows Arturo Rivera, the owner of a construction company in Pátzcuaro, México. One day, as his beautiful 15-year-old daughter Maribel is helping him at a work site, she sustains an injury that casts doubt on whether she’ll ever be the same again. Leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel can get better.

When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panamà, sees Maribel in a Dollar Tree store, it is love at first sight. It also is the beginning of a friendship between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt, love, and responsibility is at this novel’s core.

Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Central and Latin America. Their journeys and their voices will inspire, surprise, and break the heart.

HPA’s Community Book Club meetings are open to the public free of charge. At each event, light refreshments are served. Attendees are invited to bring something to share with the group.

For more information about HPA’s Community Book Club, e-mail Jamie Johnson at jjohnson@hpa.edu.