The Association

Nothing brings a family together like a common enemy and when HOA negligence leads to destruction, three generations of women must come together to expose the Association, even if it costs them the American Dream.

New homeowner Gabriela Beltram isn’t trying to make trouble when she takes a photo of a crack in her building. She has enough to worry about between the family moving into their new Miami condo, her mother Nonna’s mysterious health scare, and her daughter Maya’s difficulty fitting into a new school. But when Gabriela points out the crack to the HOA president of Villas del Sol, she’s met with intimidation from the board as a slew of violation warnings and fines appear at her front door.  

The first warning claims their Christmas lights violate HOA bylaws. In an act of malicious compliance, teenage Maya simply swaps them out for Valentine’s Day decorations. Then it’s their curtains. Then the noise complaints. All the while the crack in the building continues to grow. When a pandemonium of parrots starts congregating on their balcony, the family decides to battle the HOA in earnest, and all hell breaks loose.  

What begins as subversive pranks erupts into something far more disturbing when the building is declared structurally unsafe and the Beltrams seek shelter under Nonna’s roof. Now Gabriela, Maya, and Nonna are constantly clashing, united only by one cause: to expose the HOA before it turns destructive.  

Told from the perspectives of mother, teenage daughter, and grandmother, The Association is a multi-generational story about the dangers of keeping secrets and ignoring the faults in our own foundations—and the seismic shifts that are possible when a family finally comes back together.
 

• "An often uproarious and always complex look at both family and community through the lens of the much-maligned American Homeowners' Association, The Association offers no shortage of subversion and wit. Sylvester's sharp characters navigate a semi-suburban world of corruption and well-earned vigilantism with finesse. You'd almost think that this was real life—and those of us faced with suburban struggles know that it very well could be. I devoured this one, and readers will, too."
  Hannah Selinger, bestselling author of Valley of the Moms