FINALIST FOR THE 2019 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD 

 

FINALIST FOR THE 2018 FOREWORD REVIEWS INDIES AWARD

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Chosen as a Must Read Book for 2018 by:

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Cosmopolitan, The Root, Bitch Media, Electric Literature, Bust, The Rumpus, Popsugar, Bustle,, Remezcla, Mitu, AutoStraddle, She Reads, and more! 

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Ivelisse Rodriguez conceives exquisite misery and makes alchemy of hopelessness in her debut short story collection Love War Stories.

                                                                                      —Electric Literature

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This book will leave you breathless.

                                                                                                             —Bustle

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In Love War Stories, love is a battleground, littered with cautionary tales and cherished letters from long-lost husbands. Ivelisse Rodriguez’s characters—mostly Puerto Rican girls and young women on the cusp of romance—covet, wrestle with, and fight to subvert their familial and cultural legacies of suffering from, and for, love.Rodriguez’s is an intimate and unflinching new voice in Puerto Rican literature. She expands familiar Nuyorican narratives, exposing the glorified but brutal realities of love, and reckons with the inheritances that shape our communities.

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A tough smart dazzling debut by a tough smart dazzling writer. Ivelisse Rodriguez is a revelation.

 —Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

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"This is the short story collection I've been waiting for. Love War Stories arrests the heart with its stunning exploration of women who are put though a kind of hell in their determination to find true love. Hilarious at times even in the midst of the tragic and heartbreaking, Love War Stories is extraordinary. Punto y final." 

—Angie Cruz, author of Let It Rain Coffee

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“An insightful look into girlhood, race, and the wounds of growing up, Love War Stories is a searing collection. Rodriguez has a rare gift for describing the minutiae of contemporary life, the heartaches as well as the dangers, without flinching." 

—Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore

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"Wise, ferocious, and beautifully executed, these tales trace the tangled roots of trauma and desire. Rodriguez is a writer to watch and Love War Stories is a thrilling debut."

—Patricia Engel, author of The Veins of the Ocean

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"Love War Stories serves up love every which way: thwarted, obsessive, suffered over, delirious, consummated, unexpected. It rejects cultural traditions yet remains beholden to them. It fights with itself and others. And at its best, it is sublime. Brava to Ivelisse Rodriguez for a stunning debut!"

----Cristina Garcia, author of Here in Berlin

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