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HAILSTONES FELL WITHOUT RAIN

Natalia Figueroa Barroso

For lovers of Elizabeth Acevedo and Angie Cruz comes this extraordinary novel, the first ever written by a UruguayanAustralian author. The power of Hailstones Fell without Rain by Natalia Figueroa Barroso lies in its pacy, multi-generational story and its memorable, wise and sharply funny characters.
Hailstones Fell without Rain is a dazzling, multilayered and often laugh-out-loud story about three generations of working-class women from one family Graciela, Chula and Rita who, for various reasons, are separated from one another at the start. Graciela is a Uruguayan migrant struggling to raise her three daughters in Western Sydney, whose life feels like just one bill after another, and she's reaching breaking point. Chula is Graciela's elderly aunt, a Uruguayan who lived through the civic military coup of 1973 and is still waiting for justice. And Rita is Graciela's eldest daughter, who is trying to escape her family's pressures and prejudices while being trapped by racism at work and indelibly tied to the ghosts of her mother's past.

As the novel moves across time and place, from Western Sydney to Uruguay and back again, we realise that buried secrets and family trauma always, ultimately, resurface but also that it's possible for broken connections to mend.

Natalia Figueroa Barroso is a writer of Uruguayan origins who lives on Dharug Ngura Country. Her poems and stories have been shortlisted for the 2015 Lane Cove Literary Award and longlisted for the 2021 Newcastle Poetry Prize, the 2021 SBS Voices Emerging Writers' Competition and the 2022 Palette Emerging Poet Prize. She is a member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and Hailstones Fell without Rain is her debut work of semi-autobiographical fiction.
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Published 2025-08-01 by UQP

Comments

Woven through this generous, high-stakes, electric story of three generations is the importance of family and connection, and what happens when secrets are unearthed.

Natalia Figueroa Barroso Is the real deal! I am so excited to read this book!

Natalia's writing is passionate and song-like, expertly braiding Uruguayan culture, history and language into a compelling, heartfelt Western Sydney story.

Natalia Figueroa Barroso deftly weaves together her two identities, languages and cultures to offer a moving portrait of women who like so many in Latin America turn historical pain into resilience, humour and an unyielding will to live.

Hailstones Fell without Rain spills over with rich, poetic, maximalist prose, flickers between languages, blooms with layer after neon layer of simile and metaphor. Natalia Figueroa Barroso's characters are at once unique and intimately familiar. This book beats with a vivid, glowing heart as big as the world.

A lightning debut. Natalia Figueroa Barroso has written a thunderous story that resounds across generations.

A timeless tale of love, sisterhood, and the struggles and triumphs of immigrants that simply sizzles off the page. With her trademark wit, lyricism and cultural depth, Natalia Figueroa Barroso brings to life these three unforgettable women, and confirms her place as an important voice of the UruguayanAustralian experience.

In this intergenerational novel, Figueroa Barroso renders a captivating story of womanhood, the immigrant experience and state-sponsored violence. Spanning half a century, and half the globe, Hailstones Fell without Rain toggles between situating readers in momentous world events and intimate moments within this particular family to craft a dazzling narrative.