<club-desc-paragraph>Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.<club-desc-paragraph>
<club-desc-paragraph>Join author Julia Alvarez on BookClub to dive deeper into the inspiration for Afterlife, the complexities of life, and the role creativity can play for so many of us. Julia also shares how growing up in a family of all sisters in a patriarchal society influenced the book, as well as the importance of hearing stories from elders and investing in your friendships. If you love Alvarez’s writing, you’ll come to love her as an author and a human being even more.<club-desc-paragraph>
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<club-landing-h3>Inspiration and Process<club-landing-h3>
<club-landing-paragraph>Author Julia Alvarez discusses how her own life inspired different components of her novel, including life’s complexities, the quotes from the authors Antonia loves, and both her home country of The Dominican Republic and where she resides in Vermont.<club-landing-paragraph>
<club-landing-h3>Characters and Motivation<club-landing-h3>
<club-landing-paragraph>Julia takes readers deeper into her characters, discussing the importance of building complex characters, the immigrant toolkit, and why she ends the novel the way she does.<club-landing-paragraph>
<club-landing-h3>Exploring Sisterhood<club-landing-h3>
<club-landing-paragraph>Julia shares what she learned about both men and women after growing up with four sisters in a patriarchal society, the roles that women play in one another’s lives as they age, and the important blessing of friendship.<club-landing-paragraph>
<club-landing-h3>Writing the Elder Experience<club-landing-h3>
<club-landing-paragraph>Julia refers to Afterlife as her first novel as an elder, and discusses how that changes the story she is telling. She also discusses the Japanese technique kintsugi and the role that creativity has played (and will continue to play) in her life.<club-landing-paragraph>
