If you want your heart to be ripped out of your chest, thrown at the wall, and then stomped on by reality, read Cristina Henríquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans. This novel kept me riveted until the last word, and I had to read the acknowledgments as an emotional recovery period. It creates a lasting impact on the reader, and hopefully, the social change it calls for.

The Book of Unknown Americans questions what being an American truly is. It follows the stories of a Latin American immigrant community in a Delaware apartment complex. They all have unique stories but their lives are intertwined forever because of their struggles to keep a foothold here in America.

The community welcomes a new family, the Riveras. The daughter, Maribel, is healing from a traumatic injury. Her promise of recovery lies only in America, so they have uprooted their life to bring her to a special school. But their road is rockier than they could have imagined, and the novel follows their struggles to assimilate and heal from Maribel’s accident.

This book brings perspective to both the intimate and public struggles of Hispanic immigrants in America. Told in the first person, switching narrators with each chapter, this book brings together the stories of many lives. I gained a greater perspective on the struggles of minorities when I realized that I was reading a novel in bed on an iPad while the characters were shivering on a mattress found on the street. This novel is ready to tell its story to anyone willing to hear. If you’re not ready to hear it, you may need The Book of Unknown Americans even more.