Sunset Park Book Discussion: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González

Join the Sunset Park Library the last Thursday of every month for a chance to discuss great books and meet your neighbors. We read a variety of English nonfiction and fiction.  

Close out the summer with a discussion of local author Xóchitl González's novel, Olga Dies Dreaming — set in Sunset Park and a winner of BPL's 2022 Book Prize for Fiction! 

It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro "Prieto" Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan's powerbrokers. Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets. Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives. Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream — all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.

Beginning in early August, copies of Olga Dies Dreaming will be available for checkout from the front desk.  Registration is required.