I finished Fruit of the Drunken Tree a couple nights ago (thanks to @doubledaybooks for gifting me a copy!) and I loved it much more than I expected I would! So glad I prioritized it because it was fantastic.

This book follows a girl, Chula, growing up in Colombia in Bogota during Pablo Escobar’s reign of terror. When the book opens, she’s 15 and has fled to the US with her mom and older sister. The story then jumps back to the beginning, and we follow Chula to see how her family ended up here.

Chula’s family lives in a wealthy neighborhood and can afford to hire a maid, and Chula is fascinated with her mom’s latest hire Petrona, who starts with the family when she is just 13 years old. The perspective of this book is told from the eyes of a child, so the reader catches things that Chula does not, like red flags from Petrona’s boyfriend. Chula trusts Petrona, and has a hard time knowing when things may not be safe. All the while, Petrona is struggling under the weight of providing and caring for her family, and getting in over her head with dangerous people.

The writing in this book is really good - I would not have guessed it’s a debut! It’s also one of those books where I found myself googling things about Colombia constantly. I love books that share an experience from a different perspective, especially when it’s so different from my own.

This book is both moving and engrossing. I was rooting so much for both Chula and Petrona. The characters feel authentic and genuine. I was captivated by their story, and even more intrigued knowing it is autobiographical. Highly recommend this one to anyone who likes historical fiction, family dramas, or stories that help you empathize with refugees or people different from yourself.