Soledad - Paperback

About Soledad

Award-winning author Angie Cruz takes readers on a journey as one young woman must confront not only her own past of growing up in Washington Heights, but also her mother's.

At eighteen, Soledad couldn't get away fast enough from her contentious family with their endless tragedies and petty fights. Two years later, she's an art student at Cooper Union with a gallery job and a hip East Village walk-up. But when Tía Gorda calls with the news that Soledad's mother has lapsed into an emotional coma, she insists that Soledad's return is the only cure. Fighting the memories of open hydrants, leering men, and slick-skinned teen girls with raunchy mouths and snapping gum, Soledad moves home to West 164th Street. As she tries to tame her cousin Flaca's raucous behavior and to resist falling for Richie--a soulful, intense man from the neighborhood--she also faces the greatest challenge of her life: confronting the ghosts from her mother's past and salvaging their damaged relationship.

Evocative and wise, Soledad is a wondrous story of culture and chaos, family and integrity, myth and mysticism, from a Latina literary light.

Why Read Soledad

This novel explores the complexities of Dominican American identity through the lens of a young woman caught between two worlds. Set against the backdrop of Washington Heights, the story captures the tensions of family loyalty, personal ambition, and cultural heritage. Cruz's narrative weaves together themes of generational trauma, mother-daughter relationships, and the search for self in the face of family expectations.

The novel follows Soledad's return to her childhood neighborhood, where she must navigate the pull of her old life while maintaining the independence she fought to achieve. Through her interactions with family members and the reappearance of Richie, Cruz explores how place and memory shape identity, and how healing requires confronting painful truths about those we love.