An American Immigrant by Johanna Rojas Vann

 

Publisher: WaterBrook

On Sale Date: August 15th 2023

Pages: 352

I reviewed a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com

Melanie Carvajal is a twenty five year old woman who is a journalist at Miami based newspaper The Herald. Things are not going very well for the newspaper, and for Melanie. Her editor in chief Ignacio is not that keen of her style of writing and reporting. And her job is somewhat in danger. But then she gets the chance to go to Colombia for the Herald, to write a piece about where Colombia in the mainstream media is known for; drugs and Melanie has to do a story on it. But for Melanie, Colombia means something entirely different then is always shown in the same negative way in the media. For her, it is the country her mom and abuela live, altough she never visited Colombia herself. And before she starts on her newspaper work there in Bogota, she will visit her family in Cali first. Once landed, she connects with the Colombian part of her she tried to ignore. During her time in Cali with her family, she slowly loosens up and begins cooking with Alba, dancing with cousins she had never met and reading her mother’s old journals,She finds a diary that belongs to her mother, and during the story she reads it, and the reader learns about how Melanie's mother Anita, once made the dangerous border crossing into the United States alone. By reading the diary she learns more about her mother, her family background, Colombia and herself. Things take a turn for the worse when her beloved abuela suffers from a heart attack, and Melanie discovers what's more important in life then her job back home. Once back home in Miami, she is fired from the newspaper because of everything that happened in Colombia in her family life that was more important. She takes a job at a local Starbucks and finally finds the people in her work life that somehow makes her more happy, and she starts to follow her dream, to become a writer on her own, for her blog about the immigrant experience in America, and later on, she gets an offer to write and publsish her own book..

It's not often you can find such an original and outstanding book set in Colombia.

And its not often that you read such different point of vieuw about Colombia. Just like Melanie struggles with with covering the story she has to write for the Herald, she wants to read and write about the real Colombia. And I think author Johanna Rojas Vann wanted to do that too. And she did it very succesfully, because this is just a beautiful and moving read. The storyline is very original, what happens in the story is original, and Melanie and her family are characters you just start to love. The story of Melanie, her struggles at the newspaper , her time in Colimbia and in the end finding her place that fits her well was a very entertaining and the main character truly made a progress during the book. The story of her mother that Melanie read in the diary was very moving and sometimes heartbreaking; it is the immigrant story of the search for a better life.

I thought this is a beautiful book with an original and important story, there can't be enough groundbreaking books like this!