March 15, 2022
An upwardly mobile young Manhattan lawyer and her parents react to the gentrification of their Dominican neighborhood in Natera's debut novel. Since her Ivy League education and job in corporate law have already made her an outsider, early signs of gentrification don't bother Luz, who lives in the (fictional) Nothar Park neighborhood of struggling immigrants with her mother, Eusebia, and policeman father, Vladimir. Then 29-year-old Luz is suddenly laid off by her firm for no apparent cause and begins questioning her identity as a woman-of-color careerist. Meanwhile, after bumping her head in a fall, Eusebia transforms into a determined crusader, organizing Nothar Park neighbors to scare the gentrifiers away by staging arranged crimes. Formerly nurturing Eusebia becomes detached and increasingly resentful as long suppressed grief and grievances surrounding Vladimir's original decision to move to New York resurface. They swell once she learns that he has secretly been building a retirement home for them back in the Dominican Republic. News that their apartment building is going condo and offering renter buyouts exacerbates the schism in the marriage. Vladimir is thrilled, Eusebia furiously resistant. Caught between her parents, Luz is conflicted, especially since her new lover--White, rich, and entitled but endearingly vulnerable--turns out to be the gentrifying developer. While Luz finds herself increasingly drawn into his privileged orbit, she also discovers unexpectedly meaningful joy using her legal chops gratis to solve her neighbors' immigration and insurance problems when their involvement in Eusebia's "crimes" backfires. As Eusebia and Luz engage in a classic mother-daughter battle over control and independence, the juxtaposition of their confused inner lives shapes the plot with unpredictable curves that confound the usual left-right political didactics. Instead, through these women, Natera plays with definitions of home and material and spiritual success, showing how the personal and political can become confused even when a cause, or a crime, seems straightforward. A savvy melodrama, warmhearted and as astute as a lawyer's brief.
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April 1, 2022
Natera's debut novel explores gentrification and the American dream in fictional Nothar Park, a Dominican enclave in New York City. In the 20 years since her family's arrival in the U.S., Eusebia Guerrero has focused all of her energies on setting up her daughter for success. Harvard-educated and on her way to making partner at her law firm, Luz is poised to fulfill her family's dreams. In celebration, Eusebia's husband, Vladimir, is secretly building their dream house back in the Dominican Republic. But the demolition of a Nothar Park tenement to make way for a luxury condo complex sets off a chain of disruptive events. After a lifetime of single-mindedly following the path that her parents laid for her, Luz loses her job and finds herself in a relationship with the white real estate developer. Determined to stop the construction and save their close-knit community, Eusebia enlists her neighbors in increasingly drastic and risky actions. Natera's sensitive portrayal of the tensions between immigrant parents and children will appeal to fans of The Book of Unknown Americans (2014) and Transcendent Kingdom (2020).
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