The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
17 Rating(s)
List: $7.49 | Sale: $5.25
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The House on Mango Street

Author: Sandra Cisneros

Narrator: Sandra Cisneros

Unabridged: 2 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/30/2005


Synopsis

A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A coming-of-age classic about a young girl growing up in Chicago • Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world—from the winner of the 2025 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.

“Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage...and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book Review

The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting."

Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous coming-of-age novel is a celebration of the power of telling one’s story and of being proud of where you're from.


About The Author

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954. Internationally acclaimed for her poetry and fiction, she has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lannan Literary Award and the American Book Award, and of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation. Cisneros is the author of the novels The House on Mango Street and Caramelo, a collection of short stories Woman Hollering Creek, a book of poetry Loose Woman, and a children's book Hairs/Pelitos. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kim on March 05, 2010

It’s a little after 2am. I’m having the dreams. The ones that blindside me and have that weird echo --- is or isn’t this real? Sleep isn’t going to happen. What’s new. I leave my room to check out the house. Doors locked? Check. Kids asleep? Check…whoa, hold up a minute. Em is awake. She’s sitting i......more

Goodreads review by emma on September 20, 2021

Some children's books are good only in childhood. Some children's books are good at any age. And some children's books can be fantasticamazingmagical through your whole life, but only when you first read it when you were a kid. I think this book is part of that last group. I wish I read this when I wa......more

Goodreads review by James on August 05, 2017

Book Review 4 out of 5 stars to The House on Mango Street, a short series of vignettes published in 1984 and written by Sandra Cisneros. Picture it: Long Island, August 1995. 18-year-old college student receives a letter in the mail, revealing two books he must read prior to attending the......more

Goodreads review by Reading_ on May 19, 2025

Not a comforting read. Liked it nevertheless. This book made me feel and think about a lot of things. The way we have been brought up. The way how our families influence us as grownups. The way the community we live in affects our lives. And yes, I do think that many culture "did not want their women......more

Goodreads review by Paul on May 10, 2025

The house where Esperanza Cordero lives with her family, on Mango Street in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Chicago, is not the house that she would have wanted; at one point, she states that “I want a house on the hill like the ones with the gardens where Papa works.” But as chronicled by......more


Quotes

“A classic. . . . This little book has made a great space for itself on the shelf of American literature.” —Julia Alvarez
 
Afortunado! Lucky! Lucky the generation who grew up with Esperanza and The House on Mango Street. And lucky future readers. This funny, beautiful book will always be with us.” —Maxine Hong Kingston
 
“Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage . . . and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Marvelous . . . spare yet luminous. The subtle power of Cisneros’s storytelling is evident. She communicates all the rapture and rage of growing up in a modern world.” —San Francisco Chronicle
 
“A deeply moving novel...delightful and poignant. . . . Like the best of poetry, it opens the windows of the heart without a wasted word.” —Miami Herald
 
“Sandra Cisneros is one of the most brillant of today’s young writers. Her work is sensitive, alert, nuanceful . . . rich with music and picture.” —Gwendolyn Brooks