Ana Torres died from a fall when the branch she was using to sneak out of her second-floor window broke. One year later, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa believe their older sister has returned. Evidence is the mysterious hand pressing against the shower curtain; the angry writing appearing on the walls of their home. A novel that unfolds from the three girls' alternating points of view gradually reveals events the night Ana died, and how each of the sisters has coped with grief. The girls' father, feckless even before Ana died, is grieving, too, and mired in debt. Jessica, now oldest, holds the family together financially while dating Ana's abusive boyfriend. Iridian hasn't left the house since being humiliated by a classmate, instead immersing herself in old books of Ana's and the story she's writing. Youngest Rosa, 12, in some ways the most competent and clear-thinking of the sisters, pays close attention to the natural world and is convinced the recent escape of a hyena from the zoo is connected to Ana. The perspectives of the teenage boys who gather at the house next door round out this tale. Fascinated by Ana, the boys were witness to some of what happened the night of her death, and were the first to see her ghost. This singular, mesmerizing work is a story of revenge, justice, and family in which three Latinx sisters facing grief and other challenges affirm their bond. (Age 13 and older)

“Move over, Louisa May Alcott! Samantha Mabry has written her very own magical Little Women for our times.” —Julia Alvarez, author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents

In a stunning follow-up to her National Book Award-longlisted novel All the Wind in the World, Samantha Mabry weaves an aching, magical novel that is one part family drama, one part ghost story, and one part love story. 

The Torres sisters dream of escape. Escape from their needy and despotic widowed father, and from their San Antonio neighborhood, full of old San Antonio families and all the traditions and expectations that go along with them. In the summer after her senior year of high school, Ana, the oldest sister, falls to her death from her bedroom window. A year later, her three younger sisters, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, are still consumed by grief and haunted by their sister’s memory. Their dream of leaving Southtown now seems out of reach. But then strange things start happening around the house: mysterious laughter, mysterious shadows, mysterious writing on the walls. The sisters begin to wonder if Ana really is haunting them, trying to send them a message—and what exactly she’s trying to say.
 
In a stunning follow-up to her National Book Award–longlisted novel All the Wind in the World, Samantha Mabry weaves an aching, magical novel that is one part family drama, one part ghost story, and one part love story.