First published 2025
Rafaela Acuña y Daubón stands at her wedding altar in San Juan in 1968, feeling uncertain but hopeful as she marries Peter Brennan Jr. She cannot foresee the isolation that awaits when she relocates her young family to St. Louis. Her daughter Ruth grows up in 1980s Missouri desperate to fit in, abandoning her Spanish and her island memories. Years later, Ruth's daughter Daisy travels back to Puerto Rico, reconnecting with the heritage her mother discarded. When a 2023 hurricane leaves Daisy critically injured on the island, three generations of women gather at her hospital bedside. Rafaela and Ruth return to the place where their American story began, forced to confront the choices that separated them from their roots. Old secrets surface as they sit vigil, and each woman questions what home truly means. The crisis strips away decades of silence and reveals how geography and blood can bind a family even as their definitions of belonging diverge completely.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-saga, generational-conflict, multi-generational, return-to-roots
Setting: Missouri, Puerto Rico, San Juan, St. Louis
Period: 1968, 1980s, 2023
384 pages · Paperback · Holt Paperbacks