Now We Will Be Happy

Now We Will Be Happy is a prize-winning collection of stories about Afro-Puerto Ricans, U.S.-mainland-born Puerto Ricans, and displaced native Puerto Ricans who are living between spaces while attempting to navigate the unique culture that defines their identity. Amina Gautier's characters deal with the difficulties of bi-cultural identities in a world that wants them to choose only one. The characters in Now We Will Be Happy are as unpredictable as they are human. A teenage boy leaves home in search of the mother he hasn't seen since childhood; a granddaughter is sent across the ocean to broker peace between her relatives; a widow seeks to die by hurricane; a married woman takes a bathtub voyage with her lover; a proprietress who is the glue that binds her neighborhood cannot hold on to her own son; a displaced wife develops a strange addiction to candles. Crossing boundaries of comfort, culture, language, race, and tradition in unexpected ways, these characters struggle valiantly and doggedly to reconcile their fantasies of happiness with the realities of their existence.

Winner of the PEN/MALAMUD Award
Winner of the Chicago Public Library Foundation's 21st Century Award
Winner of the International Latino Book Award
Winner of the Eric Hoffer Legacy Award in Fiction
Finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize
Winner of an International Book Award (Literary Fiction Category)
Winner of a National Silver IPPY Award (Multicultural Fiction Category)
Winner of a Florida Authors and Publishers Association Award (Short Story Fiction Category)
Winner of a USA Best Book Award (African American Fiction Category)
Finalist, Next Generation Indie Book Award (Short Story Fiction Category)
Finalist, National Indie Excellence Award (Short Stories Category)
Longlisted for the Chautauqua Prize in Fiction
Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize


Genre: General Fiction