"A collection of eleven interconnected short stories from the Dominican diaspora from debut author Camille Gomera-Tavarez. It is a book centered on one extended family--the Beléns--across multiple generations, ... set in the fictional small town of Hidalpa--and Santo Domingo and Paterson and San Juan and Washington Heights, too ... Told in a style both utterly real and distinctly magical, ... its stories explore machismo, mental health, family, and...

A novel-in-verse about a 12-year-old Dominican American girl who must keep her love of swimming a secret from her mother, is diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis, and is forced to reimagine the person she is to become.

While doing research for her documentary about her cousin Natasha--who disappeared in the Dominican Republic fifty years ago during the Trujillato--twelve-year-old Pilar Violeta Ramirez is transported to Zafa, an island where Dominican myths and legends come to life and where her cousin is being held captive in a sinister magical prison, and Pilar must defeat the Dominican bogeyman if she hopes to free Natasha and return home to Chicago. Includes...