Fiction – Family Life – Hispanic & Latino – LGBTQ+

RELEASE DATE: 10/21/2025 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER’S WAREHOUSE)

From the Whiting Award-winning author Jaquira Daz, an epic novel of a mother and daughter wrestling with the aftermath of a murder, set against the backdrop of a tightknit, working-class barrio in Puerto Rico.

When Maricarmen meets Rey el Cantante, beloved small-time Robin Hood and local musician on the rise, she begins to envision a life beyond the tight-knit community of el Casero, Puerto Rico beyond cleaning houses, beyond waiting tables, beyond the constant tug of war between the street hustlers and los camarones. But breaking free proves more difficult than she imagined, and she soon finds herself struggling to make a home for herself, for Rey, his young brother Tito, and eventually, their daughter Nena.Until one fateful day changes everything.

Fifteen years later, Maricarmen and Nena find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation as the community that once rallied to support Rey turns against them. Now Nena, a teenager haunted by loss and betrayal and exploring her sexual identity, must learn to fight for herself and her family in a world not always welcoming. For lovers of the Neapolitan novels,This is the Only Kingdomis an immersive and moving portrait of a family and a community torn apart by generational grief,and a powerful love letter to mothers, daughters, and the barrios that make them.

AUTHOR BIO:

Born in Puerto Rico, Jaquira Daz was raised between Humacao, Fajardo, and Miami Beach. She is the author ofOrdinary Girls: A Memoir, winner of a Whiting Award, a Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, a Lambda Literary Awards finalist, an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Selection, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, an Indie Next Pick, a Library Reads pick, and finalist for the B&N Discover Prize.

The recipient of the Jeanne Crdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, the Alonzo Davis Fellowship from VCCA, two Pushcart Prizes, an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, and fellowships from MacDowell, theKenyon Review, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, Daz has written forThe Atlantic,The Guardian,Time Magazine,T: The New York Times Style Magazine,Cond Nast Traveler, andThe Fader, and her stories, poems, and essays have been anthologized inThe Best American Essays, The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext,Best American Experimental Writing, andThe Pushcart Prizeanthology. In 2022, she held the Mina Hohenberg Darden Chair in Creative Writing at Old Dominion University’s MFA program and a Pabst Endowed Chair for Master Writers at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She lives in New York and teaches at Columbia University.

“This is an extraordinary debut! Jaquira Daz delivers a haunting meditation around the painful bonds of family and immerses readers in a world where the echoes of the past shape the future in devastating ways. A poignant, mesmerizing read that cements Daz as a writer to be reckoned with.”–Angie Cruz, author of How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

“With stirring prose and an unflinching gaze, Jaquira Daz viscerally renders one family’s origin story against the backdrop of Miami and Puerto Rico of the recent past– familiar to some, forgotten to many.This is The Only Kingdomis a look into dark social truths that one woman must face as a young matriarch, fighting for her family’s survival. Yet Daz offers up no tragedy here, but a light through her daughter, who conjures up not just a fierce will to survive, but to thrive– as her fullest and whole self– reminding us that this life must be worth living to its fullest and truest.”
—Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming