Karla Cornejo Villavicencio – författare

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2024‘Sparkling’ NEW YORK TIMES‘Magnetic’ IRA GLASS‘Fierce’ TIME'In García Márquez, people in love experienced bouts of vomiting, psychosomatic fevers and real catatonia. I wanted to make boys sick, too. This is how I wanted to be loved.'When Catalina, a witty, vulnerable and beautiful Ecuadorian student, arrives at Harvard, she feels like one of the chosen. She is a miracle child who has escaped death in Latin America to be raised by undocumented grandparents and now studies at the most prestigious university in the world. She knows she has to play the part, but she also wants to have a good time in the process. And so begins her era of opulent parties, secret societies, desirable internships, flings with rich men and plenty of vodka sodas.But in her final year, undocumented immigrants become the target of political turmoil and Catalina’s life back in New York begins to unravel. As the clock ticks on the precarious future of her family, what will she sacrifice to save the people she loves the most?Catalina is a daring, glamorous and sharply observed campus novel about coming into your own and the endless possibilities of freedom, love and power.'She is a worthy student of Gabriel García Márquez' The Atlantic'[A] fresh and unflinching take on the campus novel' PEOPLE'Destined to be a contemporary American classic' FRANCISCO GOLDMAN, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy

A BARACK OBAMA FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2020A New York Times best book of 2020One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans.Right after the election of 2016, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio realized the story she’d tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer’s phone number on her hand and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants – and to find the hidden key to her own.In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers.The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival.Shortlisted for a National Book Award, a National Book Critics' Circle Award and an L.A. Times Book Prize

‘Sparkling’ NEW YORK TIMES‘Magnetic’ IRA GLASS‘Fierce’ TIME When Catalina, a witty, vulnerable and beautiful Ecuadorian student, arrives at Harvard, she feels like one of the chosen. She is a miracle child who has escaped death in Latin America to be raised by undocumented grandparents and now studies at the most prestigious university in the world. She knows she has to play the part, but she also wants to have a good time in the process. And so begins her era of opulent parties, secret societies, desirable internships, flings with rich men and plenty of vodka sodas.But in her final year, undocumented immigrants become the target of political turmoil and Catalina’s life back in New York begins to unravel. As the clock ticks on the precarious future of her family, what will she sacrifice to save the people she loves the most?Catalina is a daring, glamorous and sharply observed campus novel about coming into your own and the endless possibilities of freedom, love and power.'She is a worthy student of Gabriel García Márquez' The Atlantic'[A] fresh and unflinching take on the campus novel' PEOPLE'Destined to be a contemporary American classic' FRANCISCO GOLDMAN, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy