Böcker av Ursula Villarreal-Moura

The book leaps out at her in the bookstore: a diamond-studded Puerto Rico constellation gracing a black vellum cover, with an enigmatic name - M. Domínguez - in the lower right-hand corner. For Tatum Vega, out of place at a prestigious East Coast college, it is a lifeline. She writes her first piece of fan mail to the author. When he writes back, she finds herself drawn into an all-consuming and undefinable relationship with the older, charismatic Domínguez. Over a decade later, Tatum has constructed a new life for herself, but when a reporter contacts her out the blue, this careful separation from her former existence crumbles. Domínguez has been accused of assault by another woman, and the reporter is looking for corroboration. Searching for clarity, Tatum decides to tell her story in a different way: in the form of a letter to Domínguez, recounting and reclaiming the totality of their decades-long relationship from the day they met to the shocking night it all imploded.

A searing debut about the complexities of gender, power, and fame, told through the story of a young woman's destructive relationship with a legendary writer.It's 2015, and Tatum Vega feels that her life is finally falling into place. Living in sunny Chile with her partner, Vera, she spends her days surrounded by art at the museum where she works. More than anything else, she loves this new life for helping her forget the decade she spent in New York City orbiting the brilliant and famous author M. Domínguez.When a reporter calls from the US asking for an interview, the careful separation Tatum has constructed between her past and present begins to crumble. Domínguez has been accused of assault, and the reporter is looking for corroboration.As Tatum is forced to reexamine the all-consuming but undefinable relationship that dominated so much of her early adulthood, long-buried questions surface. What did happen between them? And why is she still struggling with the mark the relationship left on her life?Told in a dual narrative alternating between her present day and a letter from Tatum to Domínguez, recounting and reclaiming the totality of their relationship, Like Happiness explores the nuances of a complicated and imbalanced relationship, catalyzing a reckoning with gender, celebrity, memory, Latinx identity, and power dynamics.