Claudia Castro Luna with Anna Lapera: The Flowers Along The Way

Join us at Bird in Hand to hear about Claudia Castro Luna’s The Flowers Along The Way (Northwestern University Press, September 15, 2026), a first-of-its-kind memoir in English about girlhood during the Salvadoran Civil War.

In The Flowers Along the Way, Castro Luna is a girl trying on a pair of high-heeled sandals hoping some of her neighbor’s glamour will rub off on her, while living with the understanding that an army convoy, a military jeep, or la Policia Nacional, might kill her.

Speaking in the language of flowers—mango, chirimoyas, jocotes, sprawling oregano, reedy pomegranate and leggy chilipines—amidst state-sanctioned brutality, The Flowers Along the Way is a memoir both lush and taut.

We’re thrilled that Anna Lapena, author of Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice, will join Claudia Castro Luna in conversation. We hope you can join us!