We Never Asked for Wings: A Novel

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Language of Flowers comes her much-anticipated new novel about young love, hard choices, and hope against all odds.
 
For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children—Alex, fifteen, and Luna, just six—in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life.
 
Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future.
 
Vanessa Diffenbaugh blends gorgeous prose with compelling themes of motherhood, undocumented immigration, and the American Dream in a powerful and prescient story about family.

Praise for We Never Asked for Wings
 
“Deftly blends family conflict with reassurance: Wings is like Parenthood with class and immigration issues added for gravitas.”—People (Book of the Week)
 
“This poignant story will stay in readers’ hearts long after the last page. . . . Diffenbaugh weaves in the plight of undocumented immigrants to her tale of first- and second-generation Americans struggling to make their way in America. Moving without being maudlin, this story avoids the stereotypes in its stark portrayal of mothers who just want the best for their children.”—RT Book Reviews (Top Pick)
 
“Diffenbaugh is a storyteller of the highest order: her simple but poetic prose makes even this most classically American story sing with a special kind of vulnerable beauty.”—Bustle
 
“[A] gripping, heartfelt exploration of a mother’s love, resilience and redemption.”—Family Circle
 
“Satisfying storytelling . . . Diffenbaugh delivers a heartwarming journey that mixes redemption and optimistic insight [and] confirms her gift for creating shrewd, sympathetic charmers.”—Kirkus Reviews

• ISBN10: 0553392336
• ISBN13: 9780553392333
• Publish Date: 5 April 2016 (first published 1 August 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Ballantine Books Inc.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780553392333

Reviews

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like this one because I loved her first book, Language of Flowers, so much but it quickly grabbed me. I love a story of redemption, of underdogs and this story had that. Glad I finally decided to read it.

[phyllish]

I didn't especially care for this book. There were aspects of it that were good, the way Alex cared so deeply for Yesenia and for his sister Luna, but I didn't like his mom at all.

I had a problem with a number of things in the book.

1. Alex's mom got him drunk. Really? Encouraged it because she wanted to have him help her develop new flavors of mixed drinks for the bar where she worked. Hmm.
2. Alex and Yesenia both were committed to not having sex until marriage, but they didn't have any qualms about engaging in sexual behavior - as long as it wouldn't result in pregnancy. It was presented in such a way that this was considered acceptable and normal
3. I had a real problem with the situation at the school. While I can believe that they would have had security cameras, I have a really hard time believing that they would have set up computer security in such a way that a teacher had rights to enroll a student. And that they would have been able to figure out that is what Alex had broken into the school to do on the computer. That whole situation was very unbelievable.
4. Alex's mom used foul language a few times.