Kiara Alegría Hudes

No.

The real challenge is noticing you are dying in the first place because it happens incrementally, year by year, and camouflages itself as life.

Well, this book is fictional all the way.

But one thing I do share in terms of my life story with April is I read Siddhartha in high school.

And I was enraptured by his story of who am I?

What is the purpose of life?

What is the purpose of my life?

At the same time, I had a similar response to how April responds in the book, which is, well, gee, isn't that lovely?

He gets to just go leave it all behind and find God.

I grew up in a very spiritual household.

My mother is a spiritually gifted woman.

And I wanted her to take a pilgrimage, a lifelong pilgrimage, like Siddhartha took, so that she could find her own version of enlightenment and we could benefit from the wisdom that she discovered.

But she had to, like, find God while she was doing the dishes.

So I remember feeling kind of bitter about that, even in high school, feeling like a lady wouldn't get to do that.

Just dudes get to go on the road, hit the road, be the pilgrim, make their progress.

After I finished the book and my mother read the story, she called me up and she said, you know, it reminded me of so-and-so.

It reminded me of so-and-so.

And I hadn't consciously thought of these women's narratives, these matriarchs narratives in my family that she was referring to are in the community.

And when I say community, I'm particularly referring to the Puerto Rican community in Philadelphia, which is the community of my childhood.

And what she reminded me was we knew so many women who had left their children.