Ruben Reyes Jr.’s ‘Archive of Unknown Universes’ explores love, war, trauma

Ruben Reyes Jr.’s ambitious debut novel, “Archive of Unknown Universes,” juggles multiple storylines and it also juggles multiple realities.

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There’s a narrative set in 2018 about the way trauma echoes through generations, in this case for the children of refugees from the civil war in El Salvador. The book also jumps back to the rebels and lovers in the civil war … but also to an alternate...