TOGETHER WE SEE

Following the unexpected death of her father, a Bribri American teen must confront family truths and secrets in award winner Tison’s haunting sophomore work.

When her estranged father, Andres Dominguez, unceremoniously arrives at the family farm in Wisconsin right before Christmas, Ulá expects another round of broken promises—a pattern that’s part of their fraught relationship. Their attempt at reconciliation proves fleeting, and Andres soon returns home to Costa Rica. Two days later, he’s found dead, and Ulá travels with her older brother, Kabék, to the Bribri territory for the funeral. Worrisome questions around Andres’ death and his activism on behalf of Bribri liberation and land rights attract the attention of Ian Solera, an independent investigative journalist from Limón. Then Ulá finds a cryptic note from Andres that decidedly points to murder. As sister and brother investigate their father’s death, and new and longtime friends alike come together to lend a hand, a fearsome network of people involved in illegal activities and corruption emerges. Though the work is structured like a murder mystery, Tison’s first prose novel excels when it focuses upon the complex, bittersweet father-daughter relationship at its core, which resonates beyond the somewhat perfunctory whodunit that unfolds. Writing in the first-person for Ulá and ingeniously using omnipresent narration for other characters, Tison weaves in Bribri folklore, reflections on the fight for Indigenous Costa Rican rights, and the weight of familial ties to great impact.

Rich, complex, and powerful in matters of the heart.