My Broken Language

A Memoir

By: Quiara Alegría Hudes

Narrated by: Quiara Alegría Hudes

Good Morning America Buzz Pick • The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights tells her lyrical story of coming of age against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, with her sprawling Puerto Rican family as a collective muse.

Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal • One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, New York Public Library, BookPage, and BookRiot • “Quiara Alegría Hudes is in her own league. Her sentences will take your breath away. How lucky we are to have her telling our stories.” (Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning creator of Hamilton and In the Heights)

Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her mother and aunts and cousins, but haunted by the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio — even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a gathering circle of powerful orisha-like women with tragic real-world wounds, and she vowed to tell their stories — but first she’d have to get off the stairs and join the dance. She’d have to find her language.

Weaving together Hudes’s love of music with the songs of her family, the lessons of North Philly with those of Yale, this is a multimythic dive into home, memory, and belonging — narrated by an obsessed girl who fought to become an artist so she could capture the world she loved in all its wild and delicate beauty.

©2021 Quiara Alegría Hudes (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“My Broken Language is such a flawless demonstration of...strife with linguistic inheritance that it nearly broke me. In the moments after I finished reading, first came the aphasia of wonder at a book that exceeds you; and then, swiftly crowding out the silence, the cresting roar of my own Afro-Caribbean ancestors shouting Ogún Balenyó in unison.” (The New York Times Book Review)

"The celebrated playwright calls her language broken, but in this extraordinary memoir she actually remakes language so that it speaks to her world.... Hudes’ first name is an invented endearment, a form of the verb querer, which means “to love".... There may be no better compliment to the author of this marvelous, one-of-a-kind memoir than to say she truly lives up to her name. With My Broken Language, she has invented a language of love and to-the-bone happiness to tell stories only a Perez woman could share.” (BookPage, starred review)

“Wise, graceful, and devastatingly beautiful, Hudes’s memoir gives voice to the complicated cultural collisions and gentle rebellions that seed a life. I was inspired and moved by the resilient spirit of Hudes and the Perez women, who through joy and great heartbreak manage to conjure a remarkable world in and beyond their Philly barrio.” (Lynn Nottage, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright)

dazzling!thanks

One of the best memoir of the year!!
I enjoyed the way she speak about illness and Identity.
An incredible storytelling. She explained how are the Latino family backgrounds. I felt empathy with those women!!
Que viva changò!!

Such a beautiful personal story

One of the best audiobooks I’ve read. So often authors don’t read their own books, but I am so glad Quiara read hers.
I don’t really have the language to explain how deeply touching this book is. Her experience is not mine, and yet where our life experience intersects, I can appreciate her struggles and triumphs.
It’s obvious why the Free Library chose this book. It’s a love letter to its sanctuary.

felt like a part of the fam

Thank you for listening to your mother. This book is the closest to the boriqua culture some will get. thanks for the awesome read as the words made melodic music known as a story. boy don't everyone have em. anyhow, you fused your ivy league and street education well to capture things a classroom or a calle couldn't teach. Job well done. You gave history. life. culture. birth to your story

My Broken Language

Wow, just Wow! I listened to my broken language, laughed, cried, celebrated, and raged her accomplishments, insights, experiences, and hurts that only made her stronger. Now I’m off to read it so I can absorb the words in print. Thank you Quiara for making my world a little bit richer, a little more beautiful, and a little more empathetic.

5 stars are not enough

Beautifully written and read. I've never felt more seen by an author / book.

A memoir that’s both party and prayer

I absolutely loved this listen —it was one of those “page turning” audio books that you can’t stop listening to. The deliciously quirky and expressive performance by the author only adds to the delights! For anyone who loves a great memoir, music, theater, Philly, Puerto Rican culture, women, and/or beautiful writing.

Ahhhh-when a writer publishes a memoir!

Since subscribing to audible, I find myself gravitating toward memoirs. The majority of the time, the author serves as the narrator and does a wonderful job of bringing me into their world. Quiara Alegria Hudes takes this to a whole new level in My Broken Language. It is not only the way she weaves Spanish and her impeccable impressions of her family’s accents into the story, but her delivery of the imagery and poetic prose of each sentence is nothing less than ear candy. Tales of family, Puerto Rican culture and perseverance keep the reader/listener wanting more. Her use of humor is a bonus! I highly recommend this memoir.

Love so much especially the amazing metaphors

Loved this memoir. There are so many great one liners and metaphors! Wepa! Wepa! Wepa!

Very relatable

loved it, made me think of my own Puerto Rican family. The dinners and get together

thank you

I laughed and cried in equal measure. you brought me back to my abuela in all her glory and my heart sings. thank you for your bravery.