Tell It to Me Singing - by Tita Ramirez

About the Book

"A Cuban American family is sent into a tailspin when the ailing matriarch confesses the first of several shocking secrets to her daughter before undergoing heart surgery in this tender and twisty debut novel"--

Book Synopsis

An "utterly unforgettable" (Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here) debut novel about a Cuban American family sent into a tailspin when the ailing matriarch confesses the first of several shocking secrets to her daughter.

Mónica Campo is pregnant with her first child when, moments before being wheeled into emergency heart surgery, her mother confesses a long-held secret: Mónica's father is not the man who raised her. But when her mother wakes up and begins having delusional episodes, Mónica doesn't know what to believe--whether the confession was real or just a channeling of the telenovela her mother watches nightly.

In her despair, Mónica wants to speak with only one person: her ex-boyfriend of five years, Manny. She can't help but worry, though, what this says about her relationship with her fiancé and father of her unborn child.

Mónica's search for the truth leads her to a new understanding of the past--the early '80s, when her parents arrived from Cuba on the famous Mariel boatlift, and the tumultuous '70s, a decade after Castro's takeover, when some people were still secretly fighting his regime--people like her mother and the man she claims is Mónica's real father.

Tell It to Me Singing is "so fantastic and funny, so full of life, and so full of genuine heart that, like your favorite binge-worthy show, you'll have trouble pulling yourself away" (Cristina Henríquez, author of The Great Divide). This "rich portrait" (Kirkus Reviews) of a family takes readers from Miami to Cuba to the jungles of Costa Rica and, along the way, explores the question of how and to whom we belong, how a life is built, and how we know we're home.

Review Quotes

"[A] tender and warm family story... Cuban history is deftly woven into the making of the Campo family, adding an additional layer of interest and understanding of the choices that were made." --Southern Independent Bookseller Association

"Family secrets are at the heart of this twisty read... Mónica's Journey was complex, funny and inspiring." --FIRST for Women

"Ramírez's tale of family and love and political fallout truly brings the drama... a charming novel in which the Spanish flows naturally, and family affection flows warmly." --Booklist

"Riveting... As the story unfurls, Tell It to Me Singing develops into a deeply heartfelt, frequently humorous and historically germane exploration of how one family uses the combination of truth and love to heal from generational pain. A propulsive, heart-pumping and unexpected melodrama that is achingly human and bursting with love." --Atlanta Journal Constitution

"Tender and heartfelt, Tita Ramirez has knocked it out of the park with Tell It to Me Singing, a gem of a novel about an unforgettable mother and daughter duo." --Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me

"The concept alone is brilliant--telenovela meets novel. The result is a book so fantastic and funny, so full of life, and so full of genuine heart that, like your favorite binge-worthy show, you'll have trouble pulling yourself away." --Cristina Henríquez, author of The Great Divide

"Tita Ramirez's Tell it to Me Singing is wondrous, a hilarious and wild examination of family, all the ways we struggle to understand the people who made us and who we ultimately choose to hold onto. Ramirez effortlessly moves us through the twists and turns of a plot that jumps around the globe to uncover family secrets, but what makes the novel truly sing are Mónica Campo and her mother Mirta, funny and flawed and, like this book, utterly unforgettable." --Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here

About the Author

Tita Ramírez grew up in Miami, the daughter of a Cuban exile and a Kentucky native. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in LitHub, The Normal School, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and their two sons, and teaches creative writing at Elon University. Tell It to Me Singing is her debut novel.