For fans of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, Her Body & Other Parties, Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Sorrow.

A deadly earthquake eerily similar to one in 1976 that left Guatemala in ruins leaves all of Massachusetts in shambles and sets off a larger global apocalypse. Strange creatures emerge from the earth’s broken surface and begin to wreak havoc. Meanwhile an elderly Guatemalan grandmother named Candelaria ‘Candy” Garcia is determined to make her way to her estranged daughter Lucia, who is twenty miles out of the city in the suburbs. Taking place over the course of one day, Candy follows the 88-year-old grandmother’s reflections on past mistakes and losses as she treks through charred roads and highways to get to her family. As her journey unfolds, the narrative also includes perspectives from Lucia and Lucia’s own three daughters.

A sweeping, mystical intergenerational novel about mothers and daughters, Candelaria explores the far reaches of historical trauma, how myths of the past can pre-determine one’s present, and how one can strive to break those cycles and define one’s own futures despite the looming end of the world.