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Book Summary and Reviews of This is Our Place by Vitor Martins

This is Our Place by Vitor Martins

This is Our Place

by Vitor Martins

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Published:
  • Nov 2022, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Three teens -- in three different decades -- navigate life, love, and family in Vitor Martins's heartfelt new novel that spans generations. Perfect for fans of Tales from the City and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.

If the walls of Number 8 Sunflower Street could talk ...

As Ana celebrates the new millennium, she is shocked to learn that she must leave behind her childhood home, her hometown, and -- hardest of all -- her girlfriend for a new life in Rio de Janeiro.

Ten years later, Greg is sent to live with his aunt -- who runs a video rental store from her garage and owns a dog named Keanu Reeves -- as his parents work out their not-so-secret divorce.

And ten years after that, Beto must put his dreams of becoming a photographer on hold as the Covid-19 pandemic arrives in Brazil, forcing him to live with his overprotective mother and overachieving sister.

Set in and narrated by the same house, Number 8 Sunflower Street, and in three different decades -- 2000, 2010, and 2020 respectively -- This Is Our Place is a novel about queer teens dealing with sudden life changes, family conflict, and first loves, proving that while generations change, we will always be connected to each other.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Employing Number 8 Sunflower Street as this novel's omniscient narrator ("I am a house. Not in the metaphorical sense... I am literally a house"), Martins cleverly blends three of its occupants' experiences growing up across three decades in Lagoa Pequena, a small Brazilian town...Martins compassionately relays the internal and external conflicts of the building's occupants." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The reflective stories offer different perspectives on the lives and struggles of the protagonists, with heartfelt moments that readers who appreciate quiet books will enjoy. A sweet, introspective story about queer teens." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about This is Our Place was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Vitor Martins

Vitor Martins received his degree in journalism but works as an illustrator. He published his first YA novel Quinze Dias in June 2017 with Globo Alt in Brazil (to be published as Here the Whole Time in the U.S. in fall 2020).

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