The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez..., Oscar Hijuelos
The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez..., Oscar Hijuelos
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The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien
A Novel

Author: Oscar Hijuelos, Gary Soto

Narrator: Gary Tiedemann

Unabridged: 19 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/16/2024


Synopsis

With “soaring, matchless prose,” a Pulitzer Prize winner pens a New York Times bestselling saga of the Montez O’Briens, a rambunctious family of Irish Cuban immigrants comprised of fourteen daughters—and one doggedly masculine son (Publishers Weekly). 

Irish American Nelson O’Brien fell passionately in love with the poetess Mariela Montez while photographing the ravages of battle in Mariela's native Cuba during the Spanish-American War. After marrying, they moved to the United States to start a new life, settling in a small Pennsylvania town where Nelson took over the Jewel Box Movie Theater. Together, they had a remarkable fifteen children: fourteen daughters and one lone son.

In Oscar Hijuelos’s The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien, the lives, loves, and tragedies of this sprawling Irish Cuban family unfold. Over the course of a century, each member moves in and out of each other’s lives, traversing Cuba, New York, California, Alaska, and Ireland, while Margarita—the Montez O’Brien’s eldest daughter—ruminates on the nature of femininity, sex, love, and earthly happiness. And as Margarita learns and grows in an overwhelmingly female environment, she can’t help but contrast her experiences with those of Emilio, her intensely masculine brother, whose B-movie career in the 1950s has left him adrift and frustrated, with little hope of success.

Lush and gorgeously written, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien is a masterwork by one of America's greatest writers. Reckoning with cultural assimilation and complex family dynamics, the novel elicits tears and laughter while tenderly revealing the bounteous heart and exhilarating adventures of a warm, passionate family.

Includes a Reading Group Guide.

About Oscar Hijuelos

Oscar Hijuelos, the son of Cuban immigrants, was in New York City in 1951. He is a recipient of the Rome Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His novels -- Mambo Kings, Our House in the Last World, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien, Mr. Ives' Christmas, Empress of the Splendid Season, and A Simple Habana Melody -- have been translated into twenty-five languages.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Molly on October 19, 2012

I kept wanting this book to have the magical writing of Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende. But it felt as if I were reading a book made up entirely of exposition, which is, perhaps, why I never attached to the book, never felt anxious to return to it, but instead plodded from sec......more

Goodreads review by Suanne on December 07, 2016

I don’t know how Oscar Hijuelos created a family of seventeen and made each member unique and memorable, but The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O’Brien is a masterpiece of both writing and food. Read more here: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on July 26, 2014

Absorbing masterfully written, good historical fiction. I read it in a few days. Oscar Hijuelos, one of the best contemporary authors.......more

Goodreads review by Bellsss on August 28, 2022

I’m putting this book away still trying to grasp what it was I read. The first 300 pages or so were slow which is why I kept putting it away , rather going to sleep early than continuing. But at last I finished the book! A family with parents from two different countries and 15 children would seem to......more

Goodreads review by Victor on February 05, 2008

it really felt like i was saying goodbye my own family when it ended. i know he won the pulitzer for 'mambo kings play songs of love' but i found this book to be the better one. i was sucked in immediately and i read long into each night until i finished it. it's the kind of writing that should be s......more


Quotes

"One finishes The Fourteen Sisters reluctantly, the way one finishes a long letter from a beloved family member..." —New York Times

"Exuberant, richly detailed."—The New Yorker

"Nobody writes about sensuality, nostalgia and matters of the heart more exuberantly than Oscar Hijuelos."—Chicago Tribune

"A marvelous novel...[Hijuelos's] range is impressive, his storytelling fluid...his scope exuberant and full of life."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Matchless, soaring prose."—Publishers Weekly

"A beautiful pastorale, loosely based on the idea of the limited text implied by photographs, in which the lives of 17 characters are developed . . . Hijuelos composes women's stories with a loving hand."—Library Journal