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Start giftingMy Name Is Iris
A Novel
Narrator
Alejandra Reynoso
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Length
8 hours 53 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“For second-generation Mexican American Iris, success is a well-paying office job (even if her coworkers think she and her one Latinx coworker are the same person), a house in a nice neighborhood without sidewalks or chain fences or front-yard barbeques, and being able to provide a comfortable life for her daughter even when she leaves her husband. But one day a Silicon Valley start-up rolls out 'the bands', smart watch-like devices that are used for everything from shopping, providing ID, and even paying your utilities. When Iris applies for one, she discovers that you can only get one by providing a parent's US birth certificate. On top of that, a wall has appeared in front of her house. A literal wall. That only she and her daughter seem to be able to see. And it keeps growing. This story is compelling, unsettling, and entirely too possible. Expect to be moved, but expect to be uncomfortable at the same time. ”
— tee • Quail Ridge Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Follow the rules. Fit in. Downplay her Mexican heritage. And life will be good. Or so Iris thought. But three months after divorcing her husband and moving with her nine-year-old daughter to the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, she woke up one morning to find a wall growing (and growing!) in front of her house. Stranger still, only she and her daughter could see it. Soon haunted by a murdered childhood friend and confronted very personally with racism and its consequences, Iris is forced to examine everything she has always believed. About good and bad, right and wrong, and family. ”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store
Bookseller recommendation
“A lot of people will read this and label it as a dystopian future, but so much of this novel is happening NOW. The internalized racism, the crisis of identity, the colonization and use of Americanness to other and be intolerant, and the impact on future generations... powerful, and scary. Is it the 'perfect' book? No. Is this a Mexican-American story? YES. Does it leave out other marginalized identities in the storytelling? Yes. But it hits on something so core and heartbreaking in our own Mexican-American identity that this book is going to stay with me for a long time. The narrator did a FANTASTIC job of building suspense for the 'dystopian' politics and heightening anxiety that occurs in the novel. Alejandra (narrator) made Iris believable, vulnerable, frustrating, and relatable. There is a bit of Spanish/Spanglish interwoven in this novel, but don't let that deter you! As someone who doesn't know Spanish, my biggest advice is keep reading! I don't feel like I lost any of the story by missing some of the Spanish parts, but you can also always stop it and translate if you want.”
— Tori • BookPeople
“Brilliant.” —The Washington Post * “Nuanced and compelling.” —The New York Times
From the PEN/Hemingway Award–winning author of The Madonnas of Echo Park, an engrossing dystopian novel set in a near-future America where mandatory identification wristbands turn second-generation immigrants into second-class citizens—“a well-imagined allegory of divisive racial politics” (Kirkus Reviews).
Iris Prince is starting over. After years of drifting apart, she and her husband are going through a surprisingly drama-free divorce. She’s moved to a new house in a new neighborhood, and has plans for gardening, coffee clubs, and spending more time with her nine-year-old daughter Melanie. It feels like her life is finally exactly what she wants it to be.
Then, one beautiful morning, she looks outside her kitchen window—and sees that a wall has appeared in her front yard overnight. Where did it come from? What does it mean? And why does it seem to keep growing?
Meanwhile, a Silicon Valley startup has launched a high-tech wrist wearable called “the Band.” Pitched as a convenient, eco-friendly tool to help track local utilities and replace driver’s licenses and IDs, the Band is available only to those who can prove parental citizenship.
Suddenly, Iris, a proud second-generation Mexican American, is now of “unverifiable origin,” unable to prove who she is, or where she, and her undocumented loved ones, belong. Amid a climate of fear and hate-fueled violence, Iris must confront how far she'll go to protect what matters to her most.
“Part social commentary and part thoughtful consideration of themes that include family, identity, transitions, perspectives, and hope” (Shelf Awareness), My Name Is Iris is an all-too-possible story that offers a brilliant and timely look at one woman’s journey to discover who she can’t—and can—be.
Brando Skyhorse’s debut novel, The Madonnas of Echo Park, won the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award and the Sue Kaufman Award for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His memoir, Take This Man, was named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2014 and one of NBC News’s 10 Best Latino Books of 2014. A recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center fellowship, Skyhorse teaches English and creative writing at Indiana University Bloomington.
