The Sun and All the Other Stars - Paperback

by Karla Montalván (Author)

The Sun and All the Other Stars is a sweeping literary romance that spans centuries, cultures, and identities.

Marisol Varela, a Cuban American muralist living in present-day Madrid, is recovering from a broken engagement and a family legacy that suggests the women in her lineage are destined to lose love. Hoping to understand, and escape, this inheritance she undergoes past life regression therapy and relives three former lives: a defiant female painter in 1482 Florence, a resourceful woman entangled in espionage during the Spanish Inquisition, and a gay man navigating love and loss in 1980s SoHo amid the AIDS crisis. Across time, one presence recurs: Dario, an Italian poet whose connection to Marisol transcends centuries. As their lives intertwine, Marisol must confront whether love is governed by fate, choice, or something more complex. Published in English and Spanish, this genre-blending novel explores immigration, gender, queerness, and art as survival, offering an emotionally resonant, book club-ready story with strong crossover appeal.

Book available in English and Spanish (translation by author, no AI-translation used)

Author Biography

Karla Montalvá n is a Cuban-born writer shaped by migration, memory, and longing. Born in Havana in 1994 during a severe economic crisis, she migrated to Ecuador as a child and later settled in Miami. A graduate of Miami Dade College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she has spent the past decade telling stories centered on identity, gender, and diaspora. Her work has appeared in People, People en Españ ol, Cosmopolitan, and mitú . The Sun and All the Other Stars is her debut novel.