Cleyvis Natera took 15 years to write Neruda on the Park, and you can see why when you read the novel. There many pieces of the book that speak to Natera's life: navigating America with and on behalf of her parents, seeing gentrification slowly creep into the neighborhoods she has loved, the flawed and complex relationships between generations of women within one community. Kate had a chance to sit down with Cleyvis at the recent Brooklyn Book Festival and they talked about how Cleyvis' growth and maturity contributed to the growth and maturity of her novel. We then talk to Book Ends and Beginnings in Evanston, Illinois, a book lovers bookstore in a great college town.

Books mentioned in this podcast:

• Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera
• When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
• The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
• The Street by Ann Petry
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Matrix by Lauren Groff
• Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close

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