He dismisses the idea that healing is forgetting, stating that it’s instead acknowledging those past mistakes and understanding that they no longer have power over you. Don’t feel discouraged when you fall back into past habits, he says, because awareness of such a mistake is an indicator of growth in itself-it’s the first big step.

He reminds us not to rush that process but to embrace every step of the way as it comes and continue to pursue your own clarity at your own pace. Pueblo begins “self-awareness” by touching on the importance of intention and time as factors toward self-growth, highlighting how rewarding it is to reach a higher clarity when you’ve been working for it. It opens with a simple, single-stanza poem reminding us that we are all united through emotions and the cycle of life, which Pueblo indicates are both linked as one phenomenon. The novel is split into five sections: “self-awareness”, “unbinding”, “the love between us”, “growing”, and “a new life”. Perez’s pen name, Yung Pueblo, means ‘young people’-it serves to remind him of his Ecuadorian cultural roots, his passion for activism, and the ever-present room for self-growth that his work so often reminds us of- Clarity & Connection fits right into that ideology.

It can be read on its own or as a complement to Perez‘s 2017 novel debut, Inward. In short, this book takes a deep dive into how emotions may accumulate subconsciously, examining how to excavate them, move forward, and grow as a person. Ecuadorian poet and spiritualist Diego Perez are making waves this summer with his second publication, Clarity & Connection, the New York Times Bestseller that was released this past April.

Clarity & Connection by Yung Pueblo