LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2024

‘Sparkling’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘Magnetic’ IRA GLASS
‘Fierce’ TIME

'In García Márquez, people in love experienced bouts of vomiting, psychosomatic fevers and real catatonia. I wanted to make boys sick, too. This is how I wanted to be loved.'

When Catalina, a witty, vulnerable and beautiful Ecuadorian student, arrives at Harvard, she feels like one of the chosen. She is a miracle child who has escaped death in Latin America to be raised by undocumented grandparents and now studies at the most prestigious university in the world. She knows she has to play the part, but she also wants to have a good time in the process. And so begins her era of opulent parties, secret societies, desirable internships, flings with rich men and plenty of vodka sodas.

But in her final year, undocumented immigrants become the target of political turmoil and Catalina’s life back in New York begins to unravel. As the clock ticks on the precarious future of her family, what will she sacrifice to save the people she loves the most?

Catalina is a daring, glamorous and sharply observed campus novel about coming into your own and the endless possibilities of freedom, love and power.

'She is a worthy student of Gabriel García Márquez' The Atlantic
'[A] fresh and unflinching take on the campus novel' PEOPLE
'Destined to be a contemporary American classic' FRANCISCO GOLDMAN, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Monkey Boy

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is the author of the National Book Award finalist The Undocumented Americans. Her work, which focuses on race, culture, and immigration, has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, Elle, n+1, The New Inquiry, Interview, and on NPR. Catalina is her first novel.