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John Manuel Arias

@johnmanuelarias

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🚨🌊🐊 COVER REVEAL 🐊🌊🚨

I'm beyond thrilled to show off the cover for CROCODILOPOLIS, toothy grins and all! Another knock out by the genius @rafaelnobrestudio
🙌🏼💚 & thank you to the incomparable team at @bloomsburybooksus 😍😍😍

"Once a powerful, cold-blooded politician in Costa Rica, Seth Oreamundo is now living in exile in Washington, DC – and his younger brother Osario is to blame. Born into a corrupt political dynasty and raised on a seemingly idyllic coffee estate, the Oreamundo brothers were destined for greatness. But a dark family secret and a scandalous double crossing sent their lives into a tailspin, changing the country forever.

Osario must pay, and Seth decides the only way to do so is to return home to Costa Rica and feed his brother to the infamous river of crocodiles from their childhood. What follows is a spellbinding story of revenge alternating between Seth’s murderous plans and memories of the brothers’ upbringing."

CROCODILOPOLIS is all about destiny, masculinity, and how f*cking hard it is to have siblings. It's mythic, wry, and maybe the wildest ride you'll ever go on 🐊💀

Fratricide and Death Rolls coming at you on 8.25.26! Preorder links are available in my bio ➡️ taken in Puente Los Cocodrilos, Rio Tarcoles, Puntarenas by @johnmanuelarias

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9 months ago

September 2023 Mood Board, but it’s just a video of me on @goodmorningamerica @gmabookclub as the GMA Buzz Pick 🔥🍌👻

recorded at the fabulous @westsiderbooks 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

#gmabuzzpick #wheretherewasfire #wheretherewasfirebook #costarica #debutfiction by @johnmanuelarias

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3 years ago

Goodbye Latinx Heritage Month 2026 🥲 Ciao Pescado 🌎🐠💚 by @johnmanuelarias

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a day ago

I’ve finally recovered from a whirlwind second leg of the tour for CROC — first in DC for @teach_change with fellow Central American writers, then @bookmarksnc festival in North Carolina, and finally @bkbookfest — so many wonderful conversations, lots of laughs, & new & forever friendships 🐊💚 by @johnmanuelarias

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9 days ago

🦖 On disappointment 🦕

At last night’s event, I received this beautiful gift of “Jurassic Park” from one of my best friends, someone I’ve known long enough to remember when I thought I *was* a dinosaur.

It has me thinking about how I talk about my work & my career trajectory, & how very often, I’m averse to publicly sharing L’s. I keep them to texts & group chats, but this one feels different. Personal enough to share on socials. Sometimes airing disappointments makes this industry a little less lonely.

Semi-secretly, for months my agent & I have been trying to pitch a Jurassic Park novel I wrote. There was of course, the gigantic issue of IP & respecting Crichton’s estate. Permission, honoring his family, their wishes, vision & his legacy. But over time it became increasingly unlikely to even *find* the estate (it’s well guarded, I’m sure for very good reason). But finally, last week, we found an inroad—that one degree of separation to at least get us into the room.

Not many people know that the original Jurassic Park is set in Costa Rica. Something exciting as a Costa Rican-American author (plus, since I was a child, I was unreasonably obsessed with dinosaurs). For all its iconic premise, characters, and brutal kills, Jurassic Park has a glaring omission: Costa Ricans. My other books focus on those gaps—how can I bring my people to the forefront of a narrative when they’ve been historically treated as setting?

That’s when the novel idea came to life—a young Costa Rican lawyer defending the biogenetics company who created the park, and whose sister, a maid, is lost to the beasts, while her remaining sister, having joined an Evangelical cult determined to live side by side with the dinosaurs, forces her to confront both their past an uncertain future on the island. It felt like destiny. This was a *good* idea, I thought. Only *I* could write this book. From seeing Jurassic Park at 4 years old with my late father to the moment I read Crichton’s novel, realizing this project would be a zenith. Spiritually & (speaking candidly) financially (it’s hard being a literary fiction author & figuring out a way to be commercial). Story continues ➡️

Late last week by @johnmanuelarias

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22 days ago

DC!!!! On Wednesday I’ll be at @busboysandpoets on 14th with some other incredible Central American writers talking about Central American writerly things. You won’t want to miss it!!! by @johnmanuelarias

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25 days ago

Una noche fantástica lanzando CROCODILOPOLIS en Costa Rica en @libreriainternacionalcr con familia, amigos y la gran @larissaru_ — qué emoción que mi novela ha llegado a casa 🇨🇷🐊 taken in San José, Costa Rica by @johnmanuelarias

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a month ago

🇨🇷 Amigos de Costa Rica 🇨🇷 Estaré presentando mi nuevo libro “Crocodilopolis” jueves 17 de septiembre a las 6:30PM 🐊 Me acompaña la gran @larissaru_ en @libreriainternacionalcr de Lincoln Plaza ✨

#costarica #autorescostarricenses #crocodilopolis #tarcoles #libroscostarica by @johnmanuelarias

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a month ago

Our September Booksellers’ Choice is here for your reading pleasure! Please set your teeth for John Manuel Arias’ incredible sophomore novel, CROCODILOPOLIS! Out now from Bloomsbury. Here’s what our event manager Kar had to say:

“Crocodilopolis reminded me just how pleasurable it is to be completely consumed by a novel.It is no small feat for every sentence in a book of this length to be crafted with a surgeon’s precision and artist’s eye. The details in this book are sumptuous and intoxicating. The drama is of biblical proportions. Every page is punctuated by something interesting, and every chapter by a moment that will make you cup your hands to your mouth. Arias is a preternaturally gifted storyteller whom I would follow into the darkest of forests.”

Get yours in store or online at greenapplebooks.com!
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[ID: Crocodilopolis sits on display in a big stack with the cover faced out–two pink and blue illustrated crocodiles facing upward and downward, almost in a yin yang pairing–with the bookseller endorsement in the caption typed out above it.]

[ID: Close up of the bookseller endorsement in the previous caption printed and posted above the book on display. The endorsement is pink with an illustration of a crocodile poking up from the bottom of the page.]

[ID: A hand holds a copy of Crocodilopolis up to the overcast light through our window] taken in Green Apple Books and Music by @johnmanuelarias

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a month ago

Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month starts next week, so of course I have to post a Mood Board 🦖🌱🥀🧑🏽‍🎤 by @johnmanuelarias

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a month ago

I loved being home in DC; wandered around the city dropping off signed author copies at the @littlefreelibrary ‘s, signed CROC at @kramerbooks, @eastcitybookshop, & @lostcitybooks & hung out with so many friends, including watching Rocky Horror for the first time with @jamila_minnicks 🥹 — I’ll be back on September 23rd for a panel of fellow Central American writers hosted by @teach_change & @busboysandpoets — come join us!!!! taken in Washington, DC by @johnmanuelarias

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a month ago

Crocodilopolis is about a week old, & I’m so thankful for all the love it’s been getting🐊💚Grateful for the shout outs & reviews in @people, @goodreads, @literaryhub, @bookriot, @wirobooks, @readbookpage @spine_magazine_official,
@barnesandnoble & @library_journal — If you haven’t yet ordered your copy of CROC, what are you waiting for?? by @johnmanuelarias

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a month ago