Alicia Upano was born and raised in Hawai‘i. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award Hawai‘i, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and a Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholarship. Her short fiction has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Southern Review, The Best Peace Fiction: A Social Justice Anthology, and more. After living in Asia and both U.S. continental coasts, she now resides on O‘ahu with her family.
Upano's debut novel is Everything to the Sea.
At Lit Hub the author tagged seven books that are "interested in romantic love as a process of transformation, not a terminus." One title on the list:
Ann Napolitano, Dear EdwardRead about another entry on the list.
Dear Edward is a book that is so much larger than its premise: protagonist 12-year-old Edward is the sole survivor of a plane crash in which he loses his parents and brother. How,we ask, will he go on after such monumental loss? How will he rebuild his family? Restore his heart?
This is a big-hearted book that makes me cry even on re-reads. While the novel beautifully weaves in the lives of other passengers, I am most touched by the community of people who surround Edward as he comes-of-age with his surviving aunt and uncle and befriends the girl next door. Unlike other books on this list, it is not a dive into adult romance, but into the many types of love that make our lives meaningful. As Edward navigates his new life, he’s prompted to lift weights to escape the overwhelm of his high school gym. “You’re tougher than I thought,” his gym teacher tells Edward after a few months. “And you’re getting stronger.” In this novel, the heart is a muscle.
--Marshal Zeringue
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