Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Sáenz, 2012
Young adult Contemporary fictionLiterary fictionRomance
In 1987 El Paso, two Mexican American boys build a friendship that keeps asking who they are allowed to become. A tender, lyrical coming-of-age story that moves at a reflective pace, full of friendship, wonder, and questions about identity.
Feels like tenderness, wonder and hope. About identity, friendship and adventure.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy quiet literary YA about friendship, family, and the slow work of figuring out who you are. Its inward, philosophical voice means long stretches turn on thoughts and feelings rather than events, which can feel slow.
Why read it
Read it for its warm, plainspoken look at two boys learning what they can say to each other and to themselves.
A page from the book
Hope survives the night; morning is where it meets the evidence.
ONE SUMMER NIGHT I FELL ASLEEP, HOPING THE WORLD would be different when I woke. In the morning, when I opened my eyes, the world was the same. I threw off the sheets and lay there as the heat poured in through my open window. Benjamin Alire Sáenz.Sáenz grew up in New Mexico and Texas and has published poetry as well as fiction for adults and young readers.
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Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy quiet literary YA about friendship, family, and the slow work of figuring out who you are. Its inward, philosophical voice means long stretches turn on thoughts and feelings rather than events, which can feel slow.
- What is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe like?
- A tender, lyrical coming-of-age story that moves at a reflective pace, full of friendship, wonder, and questions about identity. Feels like tenderness, wonder and hope. About identity, friendship and adventure.
- What should I read after Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe?
- If you liked Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, try Heartstopper (Alice Oseman), Wonder (R.J. Palacio) and The Chosen (Chaim Potok).
A taste of the feed
What you cannot know by looking, and what it costs to guess.
You can’t tell whether people are gay by what they look like. And gay or straight aren’t the only two options. Anyway, it’s very rude to speculate about people’s sexuality.
Heartstopper · Alice Oseman
The wish is not to be beautiful, only to be unnoticed.
If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all. I would wish that I could walk down the street without people seeing me and then doing that look-away thing. Here’s what I think: the only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.
Wonder · R.J. Palacio
How comfortably we can live beside the things we claim to hate.
I saw then what I hadn’t seen before, that I was very good at despising slavery in the abstract, in the removed and anonymous masses, but in the concrete, intimate flesh of the girl beside me, I’d lost the ability to be repulsed by it. I’d grown comfortable with the particulars of evil. There’s a frightful muteness that dwells at the center of all unspeakable things, and I had found my way into it.
The Invention of Wings · Sue Monk Kidd
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