About this item
"The Caregiver is a rich and poignant tale of human nature at its best and worst, depicted with elegance and compassion." - CURTIS SITTENFELD, New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and You Think It, I'll Say It "The Caregiver is a triumph ... The threats of the world are ever-present, but so is a brave and defiant endurance, a sense that the heart can survive the worst defeats, the worst losses, the worst regimes. Samuel Park was a treasure, and he has left us with one." - REBECCA MAKKAI, author of The Great Believers From the critically acclaimed author of This Burns My Heart comes gorgeous, emotionally wise tale about a daughter who unearths the hidden life of her enigmatic mother.Mara Alencar's mother Ana is the moon, the sun, the stars. Ana, a struggling voice-over actress, is an admirably brave and recklessly impulsive woman who does everything in her power to care for her little girl. With no other family or friends her own age, Ana eclipses Mara's entire world. They take turns caring for each other - in ways big and small. Their arrangement begins to unravel when Ana becomes involved with a civilian rebel group attempting to undermine the city's torturous Police Chief, who rules over 1980s Rio de Janeiro with terrifying brutality. Ana makes decisions that indelibly change their shared life. When Mara is forced to escape, she emigrates to California where she finds employment as a caregiver to a young woman dying of stomach cancer. It's here that she begins to grapple with her turbulent past and starts to uncover vital truths - about her mother, herself, and what it means to truly take care of someone. Told with vivid imagery and subtle poignancy, The Caregiver is a moving and profound story that asks us to investigate who we are - as children and parents, immigrants and citizens, and ultimately, humans looking for vital connectivity.
About the Author
Samuel Park is the author of THIS BURNS MY HEART, which was chosen as a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews, Amazon, BookPage, and NPR.org. It was also one of the Today Show's "Favorite Things" and a People magazine "Great Read in Fiction." His other work includes the novel "Shakespeare's Sonnets" and the short film of the same name, which he wrote and directed. He is an Associate Professor of English at Columbia College and has published scholarly articles and reviews for Theater Journal, Shakespeare Bulletin, and Black Camera. He lives in Chicago.
