Kristiana Kahakauwila recommends
Everything to the Sea (2026)
Alicia Upano
"Everything to the Sea is an epic and deeply moving love story, as much about how grief changes us as it is about how great love can do the same. In stunning and stylish prose, Alicia Upano follows the aftermath of tragedy - survival, recovery, and transformation - taking up the question of what we owe to the places and people we call home."
Significant Others (2024)
Zoe Eisenberg
"Zoe Eisenberg's Significant Others is a heart-felt journey set against the backdrop of the Big Island of Hawai'i. Through the distinct voices of life-long besties Jess and Ren, Eisenberg explores female friendship in all its intensity, heartbreak, tenderness, and expansive love. I can't wait to gift this book to my own significant others!"
A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens (2023)
Raul Palma
"Raul Palma's A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens is the Florida novel of our moment. In a Miami filled with ghosts, curses, and personal loss, a Bolivian American babalawo and his debt collector negotiate their immigrant histories and identities in relation to one another. Channeling Junot Diaz, Helena Maria Viramontes, and even Nathanial Hawthorne, Palma playfully limns gothic and supernatural literary traditions in order to offer a serious critique of a post-racial and post-ethnic American Dream."
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