Susana Chávez-Silverman

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Author Susana Chávez-Silverman is a pioneer in Spanglish prose, and her public readings make for a startling, humorous and heartrending fusion of human sensibilities. A professor of romance languages at Pomona College, Chávez-Silverman’s groundbreaking multiculturalism honors diversity at its most raw and tender, presenting a live an in-your-face spirit of e pluribus unum for our times. The author will be sharing excerpts from her newest work, Heartthrob.

press release: A Room of One's Own welcomes Susana Chávez-Silverman, author of Heartthrob!

On a wintry Thursday night in San Francisco, Susana Chávez-Silverman catches her first glimpse of a handsome stranger through the window as he passes the infamous Balboa Cafe. She knows immediately he is the man of her dreams. His eyes meet hers, he turns and enters the bar... She reunites with him in South Africa, still in the grip of apartheid. Their attraction is intense, but the social and political climate threatens to tear them apart. Describing the vicissitudes of the Latina migratory experience, Chávez-Silverman struggles to overcome the hostility of a place that is so unwelcoming to nonwhite persons and outsiders.

Heartthrob, a love story for the ages, grasps for what might have been. In these romantic crónicas based on detailed diary entries and confessional letters to family and friends, Chávez-Silverman weaves together English and Spanish to lay bare the raw intensity and true fragility of love. Anyone who has wondered about the one that got away or sought out the true meaning of happily ever after will be enraptured by this intimate exploration of love, loss, and regret.

Susana Chávez-Silverman is a professor of romance languages and literature at Pomona College. She is the author of Killer Crónicas: Bilingual Memories and Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters.