NEED TO KNOW

Whiting Award winner Jacquira Diaz has a debut novel on the way, This Is the Only Kingdom

The epic novel, which has already been longlisted for the Center For Fiction First Novel Award, follows a mother and daughter dealing with the fallout from a murder, set against the backdrop of a close-knit Puerto Rico barrio

Read an exclusive excerpt from the book below

After a few weeks, the cops stopped looking for Rey. They forgot about him or moved on to other guys, other cases. He started coming around again, joining Ismael and Cano on the basketball courts, then they’d walk over to Cano’s apartment for drinks. During those afternoons, they’d sit around Doña Matos’s kitchen table, shooting the shit, sometimes play cards.

One afternoon, Rey brought out the deck, but Cano wasn’

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