Stay with Me: A Novel

“Stay With Me accomplishes all we might ask of a novel….It reminds readers what great pleasures and surprises are to be found inside such rare, fine, and atmospheric novels when we’re lucky enough to find them.”
—Laura Kasischke, author of In a Perfect World

 

Stay With Me by Sandra Rodriguez Barron is a gripping and deftly written novel about the meaning of family and the bonds that create one’s history. Provocative and character-rich, Stay With Me grippingly explores the mystery behind the pasts of five toddlers who were stranded on a boat and left drifting in the ocean, and the aftermath, many years later. Literary giant Isabel Allende has raved about this author’s work, saying, “Rodriguez Barron’s exuberant prose yields an immensely entertaining reading experience.” |

In 1979, five toddlers were found alone in a luxury boat tied to a dock in Puerto Rico after a devastating hurricane. No one knew who they were or where they came from. Raised by different families, they remained connected by a special bond—always considering themselves siblings, despite their unknown blood relations.

Now adults, Taina, Holly, Adrian, and Raymond have been summoned by the fifth, David, to an island off the coast of Connecticut and the family home of David's ex-girlfriend, Julia. But along with the joy of reuniting comes the exposure of raw places, jealousy, and childhood sorrows. Having been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer—and experiencing flashbacks to the time before the hurricane—David believes that healing his relationship with Julia and discovering his origins will strengthen his ability to endure and survive. David pushes the people he loves the most to their emotional breaking points in order to uncover the truth about the mystery that both unites and divides them.

Intensely gripping and lyrically written, Stay with Me is a magnificent blend of romance, suspense, atmosphere, and intrigue that brilliantly explores the true meaning of family and the remarkable ways a personal history can paint a future.

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“Sandra Rodriguez Barron’s exuberant prose yields an immensely entertaining reading experience. You are fraught with the certainty that she is a gatekeeper to the secrets of the sea.” - Isabel Allende, bestselling author of Zorro and Daughter of Fortune

“Stay With Me accomplishes all we might ask of a novel. ...And it reminds readers what great pleasures and surprises are to be found inside such rare, fine, and atmospheric novels when we’re lucky enough to find them.” - Laura Kasischke, author of In a Perfect World

“[A]n engaging examination of family ties and identity, laced with suspense, intrigue, and romance….Barron beautifully paces this compelling novel, bounding back and forth in time, slowly unveiling little revelations along the way.” - Boston Globe

“Secrets and lies drive the intricate plot of this first novel, which is both a gripping mystery and an intimate drama of love and betrayal.” - Booklist

“THE HEIRESS OF WATER is so much more than a promising first novel by a hugely talented writer, it is a stunning literary achievement, a tense, propulsive, hauntingly beautiful tale of the first order. I was flat knocked out.” - --John Dufresne, author of Johnny Too Bad

“Part mystery, part romance, this is an intriguing story that explores the meaning of family and the role of history in defining who we are.” - Booklist

“Full of intrigue and romance, STAY WITH ME is a deeply moving paean to loyalty, compassion and family—biological or not. ” - BookPage.com

“[P]lenty of intrigue and inspired storytelling.... The sea, and Rodriguez Barron’s memorable writing, are the forces that lend The Heiress of Water a pull as strong and inexorable as a Pacific undercurrent.” - Miami Herald

“Stay With Me accomplishes all we might ask of a novel. It rivets the attention with the mystery at its core. It offers characters as real as our neighbors and friends. It speaks to issues of the mind and heart in musical prose. And it reminds readers what great pleasures and surprises are to be found inside such rare, fine, and atmospheric novels when we’re lucky enough to find them.” - Laura Kasischke, author of In a Perfect World