Julia Alvarez's most important books

Julia Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic before emigrating to the United States at the age of 10. She is the award-winning author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, ¡Yo!, Once Upon a Quinceañera, and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, In the Time of the Butterflies.

She named her five most important books for Newsweek, and addressed a couple of related questions:

A classic book that, upon revisiting, disappointed:

The Arabian Nights, I'm sorry to say. There are too many dull stories, plus all the kowtowing to the male ego is enough to make your hair curl.

A book that you always return to:

T. S. Eliot's The Four Quartets, a long, mystical poem that reboots my spirit.

Read about Alvarez's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue