SAY HER NAME is classified as a novel but is in fact a beautiful and heart-wrenching portrait of the author's relationship with his young wife, Aura, who died in a tragic accident just a couple of years after they were married. The novel ebbs and flows between Goldman's life before and after Aura's death. His memories of her are tainted by the knowledge of what is to come. His experiences after the accident are haunted by Aura's absence. Goldman's paints a vivid portrait of his wife's life and how she lived it using words from her journals and unfinished stories. For his part, he is brutally honest about his struggles to keep breathing after she's gone.
Novelist Francisco Goldman married writer Aura Estrada on beach in Mexico. Two years later, on a return trip to Mexico, Aura is killed body surfing. Her family blames him and threatens legal action against him. However, they can't blame him as much as he blames himself. Seeking to keep Aura alive, he gathers her things close to him, including her writing. It is his exploration of her personal history and her writing that forms the basis of SAY HER NAME.
In 2005, celebrated novelist Francisco Goldman married a
beautiful young writer named Aura Estrada in a romantic
Mexican hacienda. The month before their second anniversary,
during a long-awaited holiday, Aura broke her neck while
body surfing. Francisco, blamed for Auraβs death by her
family and blaming himself, wanted to die, too. Instead, he
wrote Say Her Name, a novel chronicling his great love and
unspeakable loss, tracking the stages of grief when pure
love gives way to bottomless pain.
Suddenly a widower, Goldman collects everything he can about
his wife, hungry to keep Aura alive with every memory. From
her childhood and university days in Mexico City with her
fiercely devoted mother to her studies at Columbia
University, through their newlywed years in New York City
and travels to Mexico and Europe—and always through the
prism of her gifted writings—Goldman seeks her essence and
grieves her loss. Humor leavens the pain as he lives through
the madness of grief and creates a living portrait of a love
as joyous as it is deep and profound.
Say Her Name is a love story, a bold inquiry into destiny
and accountability, and a tribute to Aura, who she was and
who she would've been.
No excerpt available.
© 2003-2026