How We Named the Stars
A love story for those so often written off the page.
When Daniel de La Luna arrives as a scholarship student at an elite East Coast university, he bears the weight of his family's hopes and dreams and the burden of sharing his late uncle's name. Daniel flounders at first―but then Sam, his roommate, changes everything. As their relationship evolves from brotherly banter to something more intimate, Daniel soon finds himself in love with a man who helps him see himself in a new light. But just as their relationship takes flight, Daniel is pulled away, first by Sam's hesitation and then by a brutal turn of events that changes Daniel's life forever.
As he grapples with profound loss, Daniel finds himself in his family's ancestral homeland in México for the summer, finding joy in this setting even as he struggles to come to terms with what's happened and faces a host of new questions: How does the person he is connect with this place his family comes from? How is his own story connected to his late uncle's? And how might he reconcile the many parts of himself as he learns to move forward?
Equal parts tender and triumphant, How We Named the Stars is a debut novel of love, heartache, redemption, and learning to honor the dead; a story of finding the strength to figure out who you are―and who you could be―if only the world would let you.
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Andrés N. Ordorica is a queer Latinx poet, writer, and educator. Drawing on his family's immigrant history and his own third-culture upbringing, he writes works that map the journey of diaspora and unpacks what it means to be from ni de aquí, ni de allá (neither here, nor there). He is the author of the poetry collection At Least This I Know.
"Ordorica's novel basks in love's everlasting promise."
-- "New York Times Book Review""A tender coming-of-age novel."
-- "Washington Post""Dazzling...a heartbreaking tale of a first-generation college student exploring his sexuality and roots while reckoning with grief."
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)""This unconventional love story redefines notions of fraternity."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
