I left the Dominican Republic as a 10-year-old child and moved with my family to New York City. When I fell in love with literature, much of it happened in that space of longing, for a lost homeland, for stories that comforted me in a near-constant feeling of dislocation. Over the past few decades, as I’ve found my way traveling back to the Caribbean region beyond my own island, I’m reminded of the stunning beauty of each island, and the way it is a meeting place of the old world and the new. The novels I’ve chosen have all contributed to helping me feel less lonely, to helping me feel seen. I hope they do the same for you. —Cleyvis Natera, writer of The Grand Paloma Resort
In Jaquira Díaz’s This Is the Only Kingdom, readers follow Maricarmen and her daughter Nena in El Caserio, Puerto Rico. What I love most about this novel is how Díaz portrays parts of the Caribbean not often portrayed in American literature, a gritty world where safety and community aren’t always guaranteed.
Loca by Alejandro Heredia is a novel that follows two best friends, Sal and Charo, and interweaves their present day in New York City alongside their past lives in the Dominican Republic. It portrays the challenges of finding a home, and how it is often our made families who help us build new lives, aiding in the repair of the past.
What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam J.A. Chancy follows a cast of characters before, during, and after the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. This is a stunning novel that uses a multiphonic structure to portray what happens in the Caribbean after a horrifying natural disaster. The book is a testament to the endurance and perseverance of the Caribbean spirit.
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia is a sweeping story about family, love, and exile. It starts out in Cuba with our protagonist Celia and tracks her descendants as they are exiled to Europe and the United States. What I love most about this novel is how it intertwines spirituality with the revolutionary spirit of the Caribbean region.
In Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake, we learn how food, history, and family estrangement can be a winning recipe for a terrific book. Estranged siblings Benny and Byron are forced to meet because their mother has died and it is time for them to listen to her will. What they learn is a shocking history of a mother neither of them truly knew. It is a delicious tale that reminds us the Caribbean is anything but a monolith.
Cleyvis Natera was born in the Dominican Republic and migrated to New York City as a 10-year-old. She is the author of Neruda on the Park and The Grand Paloma Resort.
