Readers’ Circle ‘The Cemetery of Untold Stories’

For November/December we will read, ‘The Cemetery of Untold Stories’ by Julia Alvarez.

The story centers around Alma Cruz, a celebrated Dominican‑American novelist in her sixties, who retires from teaching and writing and returns to her family’s plot of land in the Dominican Republic, and literally buries her unwritten manuscripts and unfinished stories in a cemetery she creates for them—hoping to lay them to rest. But two graves refuse to remain silent: one holds notes about her enigmatic father, Dr. Manuel Cruz (a dissident who fled Trujillo’s regime), and another about Bienvenida, the erased second wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo. Locals—including her groundskeeper Filomena—soon hear these characters speaking, sharing their untold lives and traumas with one another and with her. As voices rise from the graves, narrative and magic converge, and Alma and Filomena wrestle with questions of authorship, legacy, erasure, and who gets to tell a story.

Registration is not required to attend Readers’ Circle.

Questions about the group can be sent to Courtney Kleftis at ckleftis@yarmouthlibrary.org