A murder investigation. A teenager discovering her sexuality in a tight-knit community. A multigenerational family mystery epic. Salsa music.

So sets the stage of This Is the Only Kingdom , author Jaquira Díaz’s debut novel. The book, which is set in el Caserío, Puerto Rico, follows the story of the teenager Nena and her mother Maricarmen, in the aftermath of a murder. It’s a fictionalized version of a story Díaz’s father passed down to her as a child, about someone he knew who was a salsa singer. It’s set in the town Díaz is from.

“There are no heroes or villains in this book. Everyone is flawed and complicated,” Díaz says. “The salsa that inspired a lot of this book was salsa that was focused on storytelling, and that was anti-colonial and anti-oppression and often dealt with issue

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