These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.

Complex family dynamics and tough love provide rich fodder for Xochitl Gonzalez’s brilliant debut novel Olga Dies Dreaming. Olga and Prieto Acevedo are power siblings poised to leave their mark on New York City: Prieto is a rising star in the local politics scene, and Olga is a wedding planner to Manhattan’s social elite. But their promising careers face disruption when their radical mother Blanca, an activist for Puerto Rico’s independence movement, returns to their Brooklyn home. Blanca abandoned Olga and Prieto as children to focus on her work decades ago, causing a rift that only widened as the two grew up. Now together again, the three Acevedos are forced to revisit their past to imagine a better future. —Cady Lang

Buy Now: Olga Dies Dreaming on Bookshop | Amazon

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com.

Stay True
The Book of Goose
Mouth to Mouth
Vladimir
Life Between the Tides
5 stories
EDIT POST