Flores and Miss Paula: A Novel

Melissa Rivero

Dec 2023 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

A Recommended Book From:

The Washington Post * Today * Sunset Magazine * Country Living * Good Housekeeping 

A wry, tender novel about a Peruvian immigrant mother and a millennial daughter who have one final chance to find common ground

Thirtysomething Flores and her mother, Paula, still live in the same Brooklyn apartment, but that may be the only thing they have in common. It’s been nearly three years since they lost beloved husband and father Martín, who had always been the bridge between them. One day, cleaning beneath his urn, Flores discovers a note written in her mother’s handwriting: Perdóname si te falle. Recuerda que siempre te quise. (“Forgive me if I failed you. Remember that I always loved you.”) But what would Paula need forgiveness for?

Now newfound doubts and old memories come flooding in, complicating each woman’s efforts to carve out a good life for herself—and to support the other in the same. Paula thinks Flores should spend her evenings meeting a future husband, not crunching numbers for a floundering aquarium startup. Flores wishes Paula would ask for a raise at her DollaBills retail job, or at least find a best friend who isn’t a married man.

When Flores and Paula learn they will be forced to move, they must finally confront their complicated past—and decide whether they share the same dreams for the future. Spirited and warm-hearted, Melissa Rivero’s new novel showcases the complexities of the mother-daughter bond with fresh insight and empathy.

Ratings and reviews

An intriguing and lovely story of the relationship of a mother and daughter and of their memories of the husband/father they lost. Nearing the end of their thirty year lease on their apartment, both women ruminate on their time there and in the local community. Flores encounters hard decisions in her life sucking job. Paula, her mother, works as a retail associate yearning for more. As the time progresses, both face hard choices, never sharing with each other. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

About the author

Melissa Rivero is the author of The Affairs of the Falcóns, which won the 2019 New American Voices Award and a 2020 International Latino Book Award. The book was also long-listed for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Born in Lima, Peru, and raised in Brooklyn, she is a graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School. She still lives in Brooklyn with her family.