NEW NOVEL EXPLORES LOVE, LOSS AND SECOND CHANCES IN MULTICULTURAL AUSTRALIA

Author Alejandra Martinez

A powerful new novel set in Western Sydney is winning hearts for its moving portrayal of migration, identity, and love, even when it arrives late in life.

“I find myself standing in front of a generation of Uruguayans I have grown old with in Australia. I am holding the hand of a crazy Australian woman with a skirt that is too short, covered in wine, who makes me feel alive.” – Salsa in the Suburbs

In Salsa in the Suburbs, debut author Alejandra Martinez captures the fractured beauty of starting over.

The story begins in 1976, when Juan Sanchez and his family flee Uruguay’s brutal military dictatorship for the safety and uncertainty of Western Sydney.

Juan, his wife Carmen, and their three daughters, Malena, Betty and Lola, attempt to rebuild their lives, but the trauma of the past proves difficult to shake.

“I grew up in Fairfield in Sydney’s west among a community, heavy with loss; imported sorrow seeping into the next generation... They clung to the old, afraid that without it they did not exist. I needed to escape and create my own stories.”

Spanning generations and shifting perspectives, the novel gives voice to each member of the Sanchez family as they wrestle with identity, grief and belonging.

“That must have been hard for you, new country, new language... But Australia was a different kind of humiliation. Treated like an imbecile because I couldn’t speak English... There I was the father, but here I was like the child.”

The story takes an unexpected turn when, years after Carmen’s death, a now-widowed Juan meets Frances, an outspoken Australian woman he encounters at a local dog park.

What begins as friendship becomes a relationship that shakes his daughters, particularly Lola, who is already struggling under the weight of motherhood and mental illness.

“Now Carmen is gone, and I am here. Juan Sanchez, with an ad in the Spanish paper... I always thought we would be two old people, together... Oh, my Carmen, I miss you so much. You will be laughing to think of me with my ad in the paper looking for a woman.”

The novel balances humour and heartbreak as it examines what it means to grow old in a country that never quite felt like home, and what it means for the next generation to define that home for themselves.

While Betty, now an herbal entrepreneur in Mullumbimby, has distanced herself from her roots, Lola remains deeply entrenched in family obligations and personal demons.

“I lived a life I stumbled into... consumed by an anxiety that took over every thought... As I emerge, I find little parts of myself and I remember what it was like to breathe.”

Martinez’s voice is lyrical, layered, and rich with detail. Whether describing a backyard tango, a kitchen filled with the scent of buñuelos, or an awkward handshake between a daughter and her father’s unexpected new companion, the novel paints a vivid picture of cultural fusion in modern Australia.

“‘Yes, we did, our dogs have become friends.’ Papá smiles as he says this... ‘And we have too,’ Frances adds, winking at Papá.”

Martinez doesn’t shy away from the shadows of intergenerational trauma but instead holds them up to the light — and asks what it might take to step out from them.

“From Uruguay to the working-class suburbs of multicultural Australia, this is a warm, witty and emotionally complex debut novel that explores identity, ageing, intergenerational trauma, and the unexpected ways life can begin again.”

Salsa in the Suburbs is published by Puncher & Wattmann and is now available

in bookstores. RRP $34.95.