By a striking new voice in fiction, an electric coming-of-age novel that explores grief, family, sexuality, and love as an ambitious young woman from Washington Heights tries to make it on Broadway
‘Guerrero leaves the reader not just enthralled and delighted but waiting with bated breath for what she will conjure up next.’—Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last
After her sister Nena’s sudden death, Xiomara, an Afro-Latina singer and actress born and raised in Washington Heights, is numb. With her sister gone, Xiomara, painfully close to thirty, is living in a tiny apartment with her ultra-Catholic Puerto Rican mother, and having the same shitty sex with the same shitty men that she’s been entertaining for years. Behind on rent despite two minimum-wage jobs, one of which involves singing show tunes while serving pancakes to tourists at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, Xiomara is bitingly cynical, especially in her grief, and barely treading water.
But when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity falls into her lap—the chance to audition for Manny Santos, the most charismatic director of the moment—Xiomara sees a second chance to pursue the dream she thought she’d lost. Meanwhile, something about Santi, a new co-worker at the print shop where she spends half of her days photocopying other performers’ headshots, starts to tug at the threads of her apathy. Nothing is simple, and soon Xiomara finds herself interacting with the ugliest sides of the industry and the powerful men who control it. Sometimes the closer you are to your dreams, the further away you become from yourself, and as Xiomara grapples with this hard truth, she is forced to ask herself if she has what it takes to build a new shiny life without losing the truth of her old one.
With hopeful spirit and unapologetic energy, My Train Leaves at Three is a coming-of-age story about the balancing act between moving on and moving forward.
Genre: Literary Fiction
‘Guerrero leaves the reader not just enthralled and delighted but waiting with bated breath for what she will conjure up next.’—Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last
After her sister Nena’s sudden death, Xiomara, an Afro-Latina singer and actress born and raised in Washington Heights, is numb. With her sister gone, Xiomara, painfully close to thirty, is living in a tiny apartment with her ultra-Catholic Puerto Rican mother, and having the same shitty sex with the same shitty men that she’s been entertaining for years. Behind on rent despite two minimum-wage jobs, one of which involves singing show tunes while serving pancakes to tourists at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, Xiomara is bitingly cynical, especially in her grief, and barely treading water.
But when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity falls into her lap—the chance to audition for Manny Santos, the most charismatic director of the moment—Xiomara sees a second chance to pursue the dream she thought she’d lost. Meanwhile, something about Santi, a new co-worker at the print shop where she spends half of her days photocopying other performers’ headshots, starts to tug at the threads of her apathy. Nothing is simple, and soon Xiomara finds herself interacting with the ugliest sides of the industry and the powerful men who control it. Sometimes the closer you are to your dreams, the further away you become from yourself, and as Xiomara grapples with this hard truth, she is forced to ask herself if she has what it takes to build a new shiny life without losing the truth of her old one.
With hopeful spirit and unapologetic energy, My Train Leaves at Three is a coming-of-age story about the balancing act between moving on and moving forward.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"My Train Leaves at Three is an extraordinary undertaking, and Natalie Guererro has debuted center stage as an unmissable talent. With electric charm and that unmistakable, absurdist wit reserved for New Yorkers born-and-bred, Xiomara weaves us through the tunnels of her grief, the complexity of ambition, and the necessity of hope." - John Manuel Arias
"With My Train Leaves at Three Natalie Guerrero has entered the proverbial room, belted out her opening number and dropped the mic, leaving the reader not just enthralled and delighted with this debut . . . it contains [a] wondrous piece of magic: the city of New York. My heart sung with this stirring reminder that anything is possible in this wild city." - Xochitl Gonzalez
"A breezy, verve-y addition to the New York stories canon. Xiomara, the book's insecure underdog, is a grieving, self-sabotaging train wreck, and while it's fun to see the many ways she self-destructs, it's even more rewarding when the hardworking dreamer pushes through to softer places and truer connections. For readers who want to find love and success, Xiomara offers a hard-earned how-to and entertaining how-not-to." - Quiara Alegria Hudes
"My Train Leaves at Three is an act of alchemy: Guerrero takes the numbness of grief and the mangled aspirations of youth, and transforms them into moments and characters that are searingly alive, achingly gorgeous in their hard-won wisdom." - Torrey Peters
"With My Train Leaves at Three Natalie Guerrero has entered the proverbial room, belted out her opening number and dropped the mic, leaving the reader not just enthralled and delighted with this debut . . . it contains [a] wondrous piece of magic: the city of New York. My heart sung with this stirring reminder that anything is possible in this wild city." - Xochitl Gonzalez
"A breezy, verve-y addition to the New York stories canon. Xiomara, the book's insecure underdog, is a grieving, self-sabotaging train wreck, and while it's fun to see the many ways she self-destructs, it's even more rewarding when the hardworking dreamer pushes through to softer places and truer connections. For readers who want to find love and success, Xiomara offers a hard-earned how-to and entertaining how-not-to." - Quiara Alegria Hudes
"My Train Leaves at Three is an act of alchemy: Guerrero takes the numbness of grief and the mangled aspirations of youth, and transforms them into moments and characters that are searingly alive, achingly gorgeous in their hard-won wisdom." - Torrey Peters
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