THIS IS THE ONLY KINGDOM

Tragedy shapes and reshapes the lives of a mother and daughter living in Puerto Rico.

Spanning decades, Díaz’s moving debut novel follows Maricarmen, a young working-class woman, as she grows up, falls in love, becomes a mother, and faces tragedy after tragedy in el Caserío, a close-knit barrio in Puerto Rico. Living with her controlling mother and beloved sister in one of the barrio’s only white families, Maricarmen is the model daughter until she turns 17 and falls in love with Rey el Cantante, a Black boy from the neighborhood. When her prejudiced mother discovers their relationship, she kicks her out. As Maricarmen deals with a surprise pregnancy and becomes the matriarch of her new family, Rey wears many hats: talented musician, loyal friend, drug addict, vigilante, father, husband, fugitive. He’s beloved for always finding ways to take care of his neighborhood even though his methods are morally gray. Meanwhile, Maricarmen takes care of their infant daughter, Nena, and Rey’s 3-year-old brother, Tito, while also waiting for Rey to resurface only for him to disappear again. Fifteen years later, when another shocking act of violence upends their lives, Maricarmen and Nena struggle not to let their grief swallow them whole. As Nena comes to terms with her sexual identity and her place in the barrio, Maricarmen makes a decision that changes their relationship forever. Set against the background of the AIDS epidemic, the novel explores queerness, cultural homophobia, and interpersonal and political violence with heartbreaking accuracy. There’s a particularly poignant moment when Nena, surrounded by her queer found family, hears one of her father’s favorite songs: “Nena imagined that it had reminded him that he was beautiful, that to look out at the world and see Black people looking back at him was to understand what real beauty was.” Díaz writes beautifully about grief, identity, addiction, family, and the blurry line between myth, truth, and history.

A sweeping and touching debut about love, generational trauma, and complex mother-daughter relationships.