Juan Vidal Tackles Grief Through Verse in A Second Chance on Earth

Connecting over Zoom from his home in Atlanta, author and Miami native Juan Vidal appears on screen. His shaggy hair peeks out of the black baseball cap he wears, visor to the back. His red shirt pops against the cream-colored wall as he adjusts in his seat with a slight bounce.

Vidal's second book, A Second Chance on Earth, is set for release on September 3 by Holiday House. The following day, Vidal will return to his hometown to celebrate the launch at Books & Books.

A Second Chance on Earth is a young-adult novel with a traditional coming-of-age theme. While the main character might be a 16-year-old boy struggling with loss, the story feels universal, regardless of the reader's age.

After the success of his debut memoir, Rap Dad, in 2018, Vidal's agent suggested he try his hand at writing a YA novel. In 2020, he started putting together a mental outline of what the story could be, and for the next three years, he worked on the book.

The 224-page book tells the story of Marcos, a teenage boy who loses his father. At a moment in his life when he's at a loss, Marcos finds a book that changes everything. Struggling to grieve, he picks up his father's copy of Gabriel García Márquez's magnum opus, One Hundred Years of Solitude. The words of García Márquez help to fill the void in a grieving boy, and because of this, Marcos begins to feel closer to his father.

Marcos eventually travels to Cartagena, Colombia, to learn more about his ancestral past. "And throughout this whole trip, he learns more about his dad. He learns more about this author, Gabriel García Márquez, and he learns more about his dad's homeland. And in turn, he learns more about himself," Vidal explains.

While the story focuses on Marcos and his emotional growth, at its foundation, A Second Chance on Earth is very much about the relationship between son and father.

"I think every writer has certain themes they return to in their work," Vidal says. "Whether it be friendship, family, or loss. And I feel like for me it's fatherhood and the complexities of parenthood, at least for my first two books." The father of four laughs and adds, "The next thing I'm working on is not going to be about fatherhood."

A Second Chance on Earth is almost like a homecoming for the Atlanta-based writer and creative. Vidal was born in New York, grew up in South Florida, and studied in Colombia. He shares this similarity with his main character, a Colombian-American growing up in Miami.

"I wanted to write about Colombia and Gabriel García Márquez because I was also 16 when I discovered the works of García Márquez. And so that is kind of like an autobiographical element. García Márquez is a monster of an influence on Latin American writers and just writers in general, and so I wanted to kind of explore what it meant for a young boy who's grieving to discover his works."

The young author and creative director says his two primary sources of inspiration are hip-hop music and Latin American literature. Whereas Marcos' creativity was unlocked by One Hundred Years of Solitude, the García Márquez book that transformed Vidal as a teen was The Autumn of the Patriarch.

This sense of admiration is felt in Vidal's work. A Second Chance on Earth is written in beautiful, lyrical verse. "I've come to believe that the beauty and complexity of Latin America can only be captured in verse," shares Vidal. "I also wanted the novel to feel very visual, and poetry is one of the most useful mediums to paint ideas in the reader's head, both by what you say and also what you leave out."

He also adds that the narrative is told from the perspective of his hero, Marcos, who happens to be a poet. "He's the one writing the story the reader is reading."

Vidal, like most humans, has dealt with loss. Although his type of loss isn't the same as his characters, he says, "I can find the compassion and the language to express the idea of loss, even though loss takes shape in different ways for everyone."

Ultimately, A Second Chance on Earth is a story about hope. "When things seem dark, and you're going down the hardest road in your life, there's still so much to live for."

A Second Chance on Earth. By Juan Vidal. Holiday House. 224 pages. Hardcover; $18.99.

An Evening With Juan Vidal. With Andrew Boryga. 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, September 4, at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 305-442-4408; booksandbooks.com. Admission is free with RSVP via eventbrite.com.