Dominicana

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020.

A poignant and nuanced portrait of a Dominican teenager's arranged marriage and immigration to New York City in the 1960s. This audiobook includes an exclusive interview between author Angie Cruz and narrator Coral Peña.

Fifteen-year-old Ana Canción never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she must say yes. It doesn't matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year's Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by César, Juan's free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay.

As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family's assets, leaving César to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, dance with César at the Audubon Ballroom, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.

In bright, musical prose that reflects the energy of New York City, Dominicana is a vital portrait of the immigrant experience and the timeless coming-of-age story of a young woman finding her voice in the world.

'A thrilling, necessary, and unforgettable portrait of what it means to be an immigrant' Patricia Engel

'Dominicana is beautiful, engaging, and cuts right to the heart of what it is to be a dutiful young female from a poor country who is bright in every sense of the word, full of love and hope' Mary Gaitskill

'An intimate portrait of the transactional nature of marriage and the economics of both womanhood and citizenship' New York Times Book Review

(p)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critics Review

A story for now, an important story . . . told with incredible freshness
Martha Lane Fox, Chair of Judges, Women's Prize 2020
Engrossing . . . the story itself and Ana, the protagonist are terrifically interesting. Loved this
Roxane Gay
Through a novel with so much depth, beauty, and grace, we, like Ana, are forever changed
Jacqueline Woodson, Vanity Fair
The harsh reality of immigration is balanced with a refreshing dose of humour
The Times
This compassionate and ingenious novel has an endearing vibrancy in the storytelling that, page after page, makes it addictive reading
Irish Times
A . . . portrait of what it means to be doubly disenfranchised as a female illegal immigrant in an oppressively patriarchal community, but Angie Cruz gives her heroine a glimpse of a different life
Observer
Poignant . . . In nimble prose, Cruz animates the simultaneous reluctance and vivacity that define her main character as she attempts to balance filial duty with personal fulfilment, and contends with leaving one home to build another that is both for herself and for her family
New Yorker
An intimate portrait of the transactional nature of marriage and the economics of both womanhood and citizenship
New York Times Book Review
Cruz (who drew the story from her mother's experience) keeps the tone light, even comic, while expertly generating tension from the plot's mounting tally of secrets and lies
Metro
Sensational . . . At once tender, musical, and electric, this novel meditates on how immigrations shapes lives, from both without and within
Esquire
In Cruz's rendering, the inevitability of hardship and the excitement of new possibilities makes for an affectingly complex journey into adulthood. Expect this to mark the author's breakout
Entertainment Weekly
Cruz tells the story with a raucous sense of humour and writes in short, present-tense chapters that help make this a propulsive though heartbreaking read
BuzzFeed
This stunner of a novel thrums with vitality, a singular addition to the canon of immigration narratives, and introduces readers to the wonderfully complex and resilient Ana
Nylon
Eminently readable and offers an affecting exploration into the trade-off between autonomy and obligation
Evening Standard
An insightful and vibrant examination of what it means to be an immigrant . . . short present-tense chapters have the effect of forcing one to sit up and take notice that something real is happening here
Irish Examiner
Cruz uses beautiful, simple language, a dreamy brush, filling her novel with a sense of awe that perfectly complements her narrator
TLS

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