WRITER • PHOTOGRAPHER
PHILLIPPE DIEDERICH
WRITER • PHOTOGRAPHER
PHILLIPPE DIEDERICH
Phillippe Diederich
writer • photographer
WRITER • PHOTOGRAPHER
Phillippe Diederich
writer • photographer
A fast-paced YA novel about four Mexican-American teenagers from Houston, a '59 Chevy Impala, and a murder that changes their lives forever.
2017 Best Fiction for Young Adults
Young Adult Library Services Association
I write from the heart and try to tell a good story the best way I can. That's all.
My subjects, characters and settings are born of my own life, my experiences and an intense nostalgia for the places and people I love.
Young Adult fiction fits me well, like an old, stinky pair of Converse I can't part with. They're comfortable, they have character, and they're damn cool.
Thank you for stopping by and reading. I hope my stories transport you, and that my characters become your friends—that you come to love them as much as I do.
Phillippe
A boy enlists the help of a third-rate luchador to help him find his parents who disappeared after Narcos take over the small town where they live in Southern Mexico.
2017 Best Fiction for Young Adults
Young Adult Library Services Association
2017 Best Young Adult Novel
Texas Institute of Letters
"Diederich, who grew up in Mexico City, brings firsthand experience as well as tremendous compassion to this poignant coming-of-age novel."
Booklist – Starred Review
"Diederich portrays Mexico with a stark intensity and raw emotional turmoil."
Publisher's Weekly – Starred Review
"This is a painful story, informed by a bleak reality, yet there is beauty in it, too."
The Wall Street Journal
I almost failed out of high school and didn't go to college until I was in my forties. But I loved reading. And I always had this idea that I would become a writer. I guess it took a while.
People ask me where I'm from. I wish I had an easy answer. I was born in the Dominican Republic, but my parents are Haitian, (although my father was born in New Zealand).
I grew up Mexico City and Miami and spent a good part of my life in Houston and Sarasota. I consider them all my home.
"Sofrito is a love letter to the deepest recesses of nostalgia’s heart."
Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban
A Cuban-American travels to Havana to steal a secret recipe hoping it will save his failing restaurant in New York City.
"Sofrito is a love letter to the deepest recesses of nostalgia’s heart." Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban
Diederich's debut novel gives us an immersion complete with sights, sounds and — maybe most importantly — tastes.
The Tampa Bay Times
23 Fiction Books You'll Want to Read this Summer.
Los Angeles Times
"A moveable feast full of folkloric flavors, comical rhythms and magic." Ernesto Quiñones, author of Bodega Dreams
"Sofrito has the sweaty seduction of Havana's streets and the warm spirit of its food."
Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt: A World History
