Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter
Ada Ferrer
(Scribner, 2026) 

A heartbreaking yet redemptive memoir about migration, separation, and the love of one family forcing its way through the cracks of history. Ferrer shifts between her roles as historian and family member, weaving a multigenerational tale that reaches into the past to understand the circumstances and choices that led to the present. With a trove of family letters found after the death of her parents, as well as government records, she unpacks the experience and emotion of migration and separation while examining the lasting imprint of history.

This event is presented in partnership with Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild and ACLU of Delaware.

About the Author
Ada Ferrer is Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton. She wrote Cuba: An American History, which won the Pulitzer and LA Times Book Prizes and was featured at HBF in 2022. Born in Cuba and raised in the US, Ferrer has been traveling to and conducting research on the island since 1990.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partner —  The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2026 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. 

Thanks to all our donors, especially our education and outreach funding partners: Carolyn & Aaron Nayer, Jen Mason & Clare Hancock, the Red Wagon Foundation, and Browseabout Books. HBF authors visit classrooms in Delaware, and HBF provides their books to schools, libraries, and community organizations.

Our Keynote event is presented by Griswold Home Care for Sussex & Kent Counties and Groome Church; our Closing event is presented by the Delaware Community Foundation. The Spirited Discussion, our gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library for event promotion and production; Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival; and Historic Lewes for event promotion and author hospitality. Thanks also to the Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.