In Sandra Cisneros’ new book, an overdue letter to a friend

With her new book, “Martita, I Remember You,” Sandra Cisneros feels like she’s finally answered a long overdue letter.

The author of the best-selling novella “The House on Mango Street” is back with her first work of fiction in almost a decade, a story of memory and friendship, but also about the experiences young women endure as immigrants worldwide.

Inspired by Cisneros’ own time in Paris as a young, aspiring writer, “Martita” follows Corina, a woman in her 20s who has left her Mexican family in Chicago to pursue literary dreams in the city where Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin and many others lived. During her brief time there, she finds herself struggling with money, befriending panhandling artists and sleeping on crowded floors with other immigrants.

Born in Chicago to Mexican parents, Cisneros is one of the most prominent Latino authors in the United States, with honors including the 1985 National Book Award for “The House on Mango Street”, the PEN/Nabokov Award for International Literature and the 2015 National Medal of Arts.