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This Is the Only Kingdom

A Novel

Coming Soon

Contributors

By Jaquira Díaz

Formats and Prices

Price

$28.00

Price

$37.00 CAD

From the Whiting Award-winning author of Ordinary Girls, an epic portrayal of a working-class Puerto Rican family wrestling with the aftermath of a murder.

In gorgeous and striking prose, Jaquira Díaz tells a profoundly moving story of one unforgettable family. Growing up in Puerto Rico, Maricarmen works hard, getting good grades, and cleaning houses after school. She dreams of becoming a singer. When she meets Rey, a young Black musician, she falls in love with his dynamism and his voice. But when her mother discovers their relationship, the course of Maricarmen’s life is changed forever. During the rise of the drug crisis sweeping their tight-knit community, Maricarmen fights to make a home for herself, for Rey, for Rey’s young brother Tito, and eventually, for her daughter Nena. 
            Fifteen years later, Maricarmen and Nena find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation, as the community that had once rallied to support Rey turns against them. Encumbered by loss and betrayal, and reckoning with her burgeoning sexuality, Nena must learn to navigate the world on her own, to fight for herself and her family. An immersive and propulsive exploration of generational grief and the legacy of colonialism, This Is the Only Kingdom is a searing and moving portrait of a family torn apart, determined to find their way back. 

  • “This is an extraordinary debut! Jaquira Díaz 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 Díaz 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 Díaz 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 Kingdom is a look into dark social truths that one woman must face as a young matriarch, fighting for her family’s survival. Yet Díaz 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
  • Named a Most Recommended Book of the Year by Electric Literature
  • Praise for Ordinary Girls
    “[Ordinary Girls] belongs on your must-read lists. Díaz is a masterful writer . . . Writing with refreshing honesty, she talks about despair, depression, love, and hope with such vibrancy that her vivid portrayal will stay with you long after the final page.”
    B>O: The Oprah Magazine

    “A skilled writer, Díaz is meticulous in her craft, and on page after page her writing truly sings . . . This brutally honest coming-of-age story is a painful yet illuminating memoir, a testament to resilience.”
    I>New York Times Book Review
     
    “Incredible . . .  Beautiful . . . Gorgeous and propulsive prose.”
    —NBC / Today (Isaac Fitzgerald) 

    “Outstanding. A powerful and lyrical coming-of-age story, Ordinary Girls is a candid illustration of shame, despair and violence as well as joy and triumph. Against a Puerto Rican backdrop, this debut is compassionate, brave and forgiving.”
     
    Ms. Magazine

On Sale
Oct 21, 2025
Page Count
336 pages
Publisher
Algonquin Books
ISBN-13
9781616209148

Jaquira Díaz

Jaquira Díaz

About the Author

Born in Puerto Rico, Jaquira Díaz was raised between Humacao, Fajardo, and Miami Beach. She is the author of Ordinary 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 Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, the Alonzo Davis Fellowship from VCCA, two Pushcart Prizes, an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, and fellowships from MacDowell, the Kenyon Review, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, Díaz has written for The AtlanticThe GuardianTime MagazineT: The New York Times Style MagazineCondé Nast Traveler, and The Fader, and her stories, poems, and essays have been anthologized in The Best American Essays, The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, Best American Experimental Writing, and The Pushcart Prize anthology. 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 with her spouse, the writer Lars Horn, and teaches at Columbia University.
 

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